Witchfinder
by JoeB1451
Summary: There is a serial killer killing New Age women in San Fransico,it looks like he might be planning an acension. But he just broke pattern, his latest victim is an owner of a night club called the P3. Part Three of ROS
1. Chapter 1

What has gone before

When Jack Ryan is informed that a US General in charge of a group that is tasked with combating the supernatural has gone AWOL with his men and seems to be heading for Sunnydale California to open the Hellmouth there, he sends John Clark and Rainbow there to stop him.

Riley Finn, who along with his team, had not deserted with the rest of the Initiative, briefed John and his partner Domingo Chavez on the supernatural and escorted them to Sunnydale. They met with Buffy and she agreed to work with them.

The next day Buffy and Domingo helped Robert Broadman, a forest ranger; rescue a family who had been trapped by a group of Shadow Hounds. Broadman explained he had learned of Buffy from a contact in the Sunnydale Police department.

Giles showed up with three potentials Slayers in tow. He explained that the Watchers Council had been destroyed and that he had sent out word that all potentials that could should try to make to Sunnydale. He also explained that the First seemed to be trying to break the Slayer Line by first killing all of the potentials, then Faith and her.

The British Government were looking for Giles as he seemed to be the only survivor of the Council but Clark wanted him Sunnydale so he asked Jack if he could set something up with them and they agreed to send some one to Sunnydale.

The Warehouse that Buffy first fought Glory is purchased as Rainbow's base in Sunnydale and the teams move in. Buffy and Giles go to check out the tree lot where Buffy faced the First last time and Buffy meets Trifurcates, who Giles tells Buffy was the first vampire, and is beaten badly.

Andrew Wells had been captured by Willow and was recuperating from an attack by Spike when Clark and company had arrived. He offered to get the FBI to come and take him to Los Angeles. Pat O'Day, a Roving Inspector for the FBI arrived and took Wells into custody. Clark suggested that he might want to wait until a mission they had planned to try to find and rescue Spike so The First would be distracted. Buffy suggested he take Willow along with him. The just made it into the mountains when they were attacked. Andrew was injured but Willow disarmed the attackers and managed to get Andrew and Pat back to Sunnydale General Hospital.

Rainbow, Buffy and Xander attacked the caves where Buffy had ran into Trifurcates and found many bringers and vampires and Spike. Suffering only minor injuries they managed to rescue Spike.

Getting their injured to the hospital they found Pat and Willow waiting. Clark showed up soon after and informed Buffy that President Ryan would like a meeting with her.

Imhotep's Key

Jack Ryan and Buffy met while Jack was stumping for candidates he would like to help. He offered what ever help he could deliver, but Buffy turned him down at Giles insistence. Giles feared that if they accepted help they would become use to it and he felt that The Council must be independent of any government. During the meeting it was learned that Elizabeth Elliot, one of the founders of the Initiative was broken out of the Sanitarium she was housed at after a breakdown.

Jack wanted Clark to establish a favorable relationship with Sunnydale's government and police force, but Buffy asked if she could meet with the police force first. She had always assumed that the cops didn't really know what went on in Sunnydale after dark but her encounter with Ranger Broadman showed her that they knew who she was and what she did. Buffy confronts Lt. Jonathan O'Connell; the head of Sunnydale's Night Shift and asks for an explanation. O'Connell asks to meet her at the local police hangout for dinner so he can explain. She agrees and meets him with Xander and Giles. He explains that the SPD was originally warned off by the Initiative and then the situation never seemed quite right for an introduction. He apologized then asked if they could help in any way. Giles agreed much to the chagrin of Buffy and Xander. Giles explained to Buffy that he knew of Jonathan's family and their exploits in stopping various Egyptian supernatural entities over the years, he also hopped that Jonathan could put him in contact with the Medji, a group that the O'Connell's have allied with different times to help them with their situation with The First.

The Medji were closer than Giles knew as they were in town searching for The Key, they had intercepted a message that indicated that with it they could bring back Imhotep. They wanted to find it first and destroy it.

O'Connell asked Buffy to accompany him out to visit the head of the local school board, Andre' de Vries. de Vries had a break in at his house and a ring that he said only had sentimental value had been stolen. O'Connell also told him of the shadow hounds that had been in the near by national park. Peter Langford, de Vries assistant, theorized that it was the work of some dabblers on the university campus because of the low number of hounds that had been present.

When O'Connell got home he was contacted by the Medji who explained their mission and they asked for his help. When they explained about The Key O'Connell told them that he thought that it was Dawn Summers. Amed Bey, the commander of the Medji thought that maybe Anck-Su-Namun had bit off more than she could chew taking on The Slayer.

When Amed and O'Connell explained the situation to Buffy, she decided to bring Clark and his people in and explain what was going on. Sam Finn and the rest of team three had arrived so Riley and her went to the meeting. When Buffy explained that The Key had been placed into Dawn, Sam realized that there was no way for such and artifact to be hidden in a person, that the vessel would have had to have been especially constructed to hide it. Buffy and the Scoobies got defensive about Dawn, but Clark said that he didn't care how Dawn got here, she was here.

Anya thought that she might have some books on Imhotep in storage with the rest of the stuff that had survived Buffy and Willows fight in the Magic Shop last May so she and Willow head out to it. O'Connell got a call from his sister that she had found the ceremony that Anck-Su-Namun would be using to raise Imhotep and that she didn't need The Key for it, rather she needed a witch that had resurrected someone.

By the time the group got to Secure store Willow had already been capture and Anck-Su-Namun and her henchmen were fleeing. Anck-Su-Namun shot Buffy in the leg as Buffy chased after the van they had kidnapped Willow in. Anck-Su-Namun had left henchmen behind to delay pursuit, but Rainbow and Team Three arrived in force and killed all but one of the bad guys.

Realizing that they would not be able to cover up what had happened, Frayne Murphy, the local FBI agent, and O'Connell cooked up a plan to claim that a known terrorist group was responsible for the blood shed. Bob Holtzman used this as an excuse to head out to Sunnydale.

Buffy was recuperating at home while the search went on for Willow. Hank Summers came to town because he had to get Buffy's signature on some child welfare documents. Dawn greeted him as 'Sperm Donor', but then remarked that he really wasn't even that. When asked for some clarification Buffy decided to explain everything to him. Hank left thinking his eldest daughter had slipped over the edge and he needed to get her some help.

Bob Holtzman showed up just as Hank was leaving and let Buffy know he knew she was the Slayer. Clark called Jack who told Clark to make a deal with the reporter. Clark and Holtzman agreed to imbed Holtzman in the operation, in return he would give the administration 72 hours warning before he published.

The British Government's representative to question Giles arrived in Sunnydale accompanied by Lara Croft. Lara besides escorting the representative had business with the Slayer. Ranger Broadman with several of his men also arrived. The Crown representative, once convinced that Giles had not been turned, offered the Crown's help. Giles turned them down for the same reasons he turned down Jack Ryan's offer. The Rep pointed out to him not to forget he had friends, and that he shouldn't be to proud to except help.

Lara gave to Buffy a gift, a knife named 'It Is', which supposedly ignored all magical defenses. When Lara learned what was going on she offered to stay and help. Clark wasn't thrilled, but Colonel Alistair Stanley, his second in command suggested he accept the help.

They managed to locate where Anck-Su-Namun was holding Willow and organized a rescue. Using Peter Langford who was an expert with locks and wards they managed to sneak through Anck-Su-Namun's magical defenses and attacked. Willow meanwhile found her self in the Ante-room of Hell with Imhotep. He explained that they would switch places, she would remain in Hell, he would return to the realm of the living. To facilitate the transfer he showed Willow all the reasons she deserved to be in Hell. Willow was fading when her old Love Tara appeared and explained that people didn't deserve to go to Hell, rather they chose to go there. She also chided Willow for cutting herself off from people; finally as Willow was being drawn back she called out, "Know What You Know!" In an ugly and close fought battle, the rescue force succeeded in rescuing Willow and capturing Anck-Su-Namun.

While Willow was recovering in the hospital Andrea Price asked her if she would be willing to check out the White House and make recommendations to make it more magic resistant. Willow told her if she could get her out of the hospital she was ready to leave now.


	2. Chapter 2

Witchfinder Chapter 1 By Joseph Black

Disclaimer: Red Storm and Tom Clancy own Rainbow and Characters. Joss Whedon owns Buffy and Characters. Anyone you don't recognize belongs to me. I make no profit of the following except to have a little fun.

Spoilers: Buffy to present. Rainbow to Bear and the Dragon.

Authors note 1: This is a continuation of the story started in 'Rainbow Over Sunnydale and continued in Imhotep's Key. It would be helpful to read those fics first.

Authors note 2: I can't seem to get Fanfic to except my special formatting. So anytime you see this ' anything inside is in a foreign language. And if you see this [ it's some ones thoughts.

Thanks to all that reviewed. Constructive criticisms always welcomed. Flames cheerfully ignored.

Character List For ROS  
Washington DC

Name Position

Jack Ryan President of the United States  
Ed Foley Director of the CIA  
Mary Pat Foley Deputy Director Operations CIA  
Tony Brentano Secretary of Defense  
Robby Jackson Vice President of the Untied States  
Arnie Van Damm White House Chief of Staff  
Dan Murray Director of the FBI  
George Winston Secretary of the Treasury  
Pat Martin Attorney General  
Pierre Alexander Surgeon General  
Lt. General Micky Moore Joint Chief of Staff  
Colonel Joshua McCloud Commander: Initiative  
Scott Adler Secretary of State  
Andrea Price-O'Day Head of Presidential Secret Service Detail  
Ben Bascome Secret Service Agent  
Dr. Ben Goodly National Security Advisor  
Robert Conrad Night Supervisor National Recognizance Office  
Pete Cruvel Informant for Bob Holtzman at Andrews AFB  
Tom Messinger Head of IT department at Washington Post Newspaper  
Olivia (Sally) Ryan Jack Ryan's oldest child  
Jack Ryan jr. Jack Ryan's second child  
Katie Ryan Jack Ryan's third child  
Kyle Ryan Jack Ryan's fourth child  
Dr. Cathy Ryan First Lady of the United States. Ompthomolic Surgeon  
Ross Maritn Day Supervisor at National Recognizance Office  
Pat O'Day Roving Inspector for FBI  
Tanner Gaudru Bob Holtzman's editor at Washington Post Newspaper  
John Plumber Television Reporter with Fox News  
Oscar Opgood Intern with Washington Post Newspaer  
Pedro De la Hoya Diplomat with Mexican Embassy in Washington DC  
Agent Sissy Loomis FBI Agent, Andrew Wells Control

Scoobies:

Buffy Summers Senior Slayer  
Xander Harris   
Willow Rosenberg Witch  
Anya Jenkins Ex-Vengeance Demon  
Rupert Giles Watcher  
Dawn Summers Buffy's younger sister, The Key  
Andrew Wells Sort-of-Scooby, Guestage.  
Molly Potential Slayer, Niece of Allistair Stanley  
Annabelle Potential Slayer  
Kennedy Potential Slayer

Rainbow:

Brig. General John Clark Commanding Officer of Rainbow  
Major Domingo 'Ding' Chavez Commanding Officer Rainbow Team 2  
Major Peter Covington Commanding Officer Rainbow Team 1  
Lt. Colonel Allistair Stanley Executive Officer Rainbow  
David Peled Rainbow Electronics Expert  
Lt. Kenshin Hiedoki Rainbow Team 1  
Paul Bellows Rainbow Psychologist/Profiler  
Staff Sergeant Ciquala Thompson Rainbow Team 1 Sniper  
Sergeant Frank Miller Rainbow Team 1 Machine gunner.  
Sergeant Cory Unger Rainbow Team 1 Assualt  
Warrant Officer John Benton Rainbow Team 1 Command Sergeant Major,  
Staff Sergeant Keefe Johnson Rainbow Team 1 Assualt  
Staff Sergeant Buford Summers Rainbow Team 1 Assualt  
Sergeant Ardel Sherwood Rainbow Team 1 Sniper  
Feldwebel Trauguti Blatter Rainbow Team 1 Assualt  
Sergeant Evgany Lushilov Rainbow Team 1 Assualt  
Paddy Connolly Rainbow Team 2 Assualt  
Ettore Falcone Rainbow Team 2 Assualt  
WO Eddie Price Rainbow Team 2 Command Sergeant Major  
Loiselle Rainbow Team 2 Assualt  
Scotty McTyler Rainbow Team 2 Assualt  
CWO-4 Carl 'Badger' Cole Rainbow Helicopter Pilot

Initiative Team 3

Major Riley Finn Commanding Officer Team 3  
2nd Lieutenant Samantha Finn Executive Officer Team 3  
Graham Miller Team 3 Squad Leader  
Bob Crugen Team 3 K9 Handler  
Ginger Team 3 K9  
Ed Trusken Team 3 Radio Operator  
Sharon Laraopold Team3 Medic  
Tony Baker Team 3 Rifleman  
Charlie Bigford Team 3 Rifleman

Sunnydale

Ranger Roger Broadman Chief of Rangers Central California District  
Ranger Stephan Moham Forest Ranger Central California District

Ranger Josh Lake Forest Ranger Central California District  
Daniel Carlton Forest Ranger Central California District  
Jim DeSousa Forest Ranger Central California District  
Gerry Johnson Owner/Operator of Gerry's Sporting Goods  
Dr. Sandra Sanchez Emergency Room Surgeon, Sunnydale General  
Thomas Sanchez Dr. Sanchez's son  
Brieanna Sanchez Dr. Sanchez's Daughter  
Carol Picket (Casandra) Receptionist Sunnydale FBI  
Frayne Murphy Special Agent in Charge Sunnydale FBI  
Susan Conners ASAC Sunnydale FBI  
Jurgis Ewel (Cadmus) Reporter, Sunnydale Press  
Kit Student Sunnydale High School, Junior Scoobie  
Carlos Student Sunnydale High School, Junior Scoobie  
Dr. Russell Davis Head of Nightshift Sunnydale General Hosp  
Lt. Jonathon O'Connell Head of the Sunnydale PD Nightshift  
Officer Owen Thurman Sunnydale PD Nightshift  
Gideon Scott Mayor of Sunnydale  
Andre' De Vries Sorcerer, Head of Sunnydale School Board  
Peter Langford Wizard, Apprentice of Andre' De Vries

11 ACR

Major General Merion Diggs Commander 1st Armored Division  
Colonel Duke Masterman General Diggs' Operations Officer  
Colonel Nicholas Eddington General Diggs' Chief of Staff  
Cindy Stewart General Diggs' Occult Expert  
Colonel Al Hamm Commanding Officer 11th Armored Calvary Regiment  
WO Billie Lee Guthrie Scout Helicopter Pilot 11th ACR  
Captain Jack Preston Commanding Officer 4th Troop (Helicopters) 11th ACR

Misc:

Conrad Raynes Screenplay writer, gossip source for Bob Holtzman  
Sir Basil Charleston Head of British Intelligence  
D'Hoffryn Leader of the Vengeance Demons  
Hank Summers Buffy and Dawn Summers' father  
Major Shelia Decker Proposed CO for Sunnydale's Army Base  
Dr. Clarice Golden Psychologist  
Lady Lara Croft Tomb Raider

Bad Guys

Elisabeth Elliot Former National Security Advisor, Liaison to Initiative  
in Sunnydale  
Trifurcates The First Vampire  
The First Big Bad  
Brigadier General Thomas Leader of Rouge Initiative Group  
Billingsly   
Captain Carl Iverson General Billingsly's Aide

Fic Starts Here X-X-X-X 

1630 Revello Drive  
Sunnydale, CA  
07Nov2002

02:45 Hrs.

Willow Rosenberg sat in her room and watched as the Buffybot did its Power On Self Test. She had been surprised when General Clark had approached her about fixing it. When she had said, that if she could get the parts, she would be able to fix it in a couple of days the General had gone to Buffy with a request to purchase the robot. Buffy had looked dubious until he had explained that if they got it up and working they could use it as a decoy when Billingsly and the Initiative hit town. It would at least give them a fifty-fifty shot of The Initiative going after the wrong Buffy. That explained, Buffy had no problem with selling them the busted 'bot, but Dawn had raised a stink; so in the end they had rented it to Rainbow for a dollar plus repair costs. The parts had arrived two days ago and Willow had gotten the Buffybot back together during rest breaks from doing translations for Pat O'Day's problem in San Francisco. Looking the information he had passed along Willow had begun to suspect that the serial killer that had been dubbed 'Witchfinder' wasn't a poser. Anya had managed to get a copy of the Books of Ascension. Willow hoped she gotten the last couple of translations wrong so she had asked Dawn, whose Sumerian was a lot better than hers, to double check that she was right. She glanced over at Kennedy, who had become bored with Willows tinkering and had crawled into bed and was softly snoring.

Willow had been surprised when she had gotten back from Washington to find that several of the new Potentials had already arrived. Kennedy had been in charge of sleeping assignments and Willow found herself with a roommate who was also gay. Willow had resisted at first, but had remembered what Tara had told her in the Antechamber, and she and Kennedy were starting to feel each other out.

Willow checked the Buffybot and found it was about a quarter of the way through its POST so she, as she was want to do when she had some time, went over again what had happened in Washington DC last week.

Dr. Sanchez had not wanted to release her, especially with Willow claiming to have met her dead lover while she had been wrapped. The doctor had wanted the hospital psychologist to look the young redhead over. Buffy had taken the Doc aside and, after a brief argument, convinced her that Willow was okay to leave. When Willow had asked what she had said to the doctor, Buffy had told her that she had pointed out to the Doc that if she wanted to help them, she needed to keep an open mind on what other members said happened to them. It hadn't been a total victory, Doc Sanchez had gotten Willow to agree to report any recurring nightmares, or hallucinations, or if she had problems falling asleep. To get out of the hospital, Willow was almost ready to sign over her first born, so she readily agreed to the doctor's terms. A quick stop at the house to pick up clothing and she and Andrea were off to the airport.

The President had insisted that from now on any official traveling to or from Sunnydale was going to be done by VC-20, so there was none of the hassles normally associated with air travel. This was the first time Willow had flown in a private jet, well a private style jet, the crew of this one was in the Air Force, with a Colonel flying the plane and the stewardess had a lot of stripes on her arm. Once they had gotten to cruising altitude she had asked if they wanted anything to drink. Willow would have killed for a latte, but Doc Sanchez had been adamant, no caffeine for twenty-four hours to give the drugs that were in her system a chance to clear. She asked for a Sprite, while Andrea got a Coke. They enjoyed their drinks for a couple of minutes then Andrea asked, "Do you want to sleep, or do you mind answering some questions?"

Willow, who felt like she had slept for a week, replied, "Ask away."

Andrea began asking many of the same questions Ding had asked when he had been trying to get a handle on what magic could and could not do. But, soon her questions drifted into more specific questions on how magic could be used to protect the president, or how it could be used to attack him. Willow answered to the best of her abilities, but soon Willow began to feel out of her depth.

Andrea soon realized that she was dealing with a very gifted amateur. She should have expected that though. Willow was largely self-taught, and the problem with that approach is a person could well be very knowledgeable about what they did know, they often didn't know what they didn't know.

Willow obviously felt the same way because finally she suggested, "Buffy said that Lt. O' Connell, back in Sunnydale, knows some members of the American Federation of Wizards, he could probably put you into contact with someone who would know more about this stuff."

Andrea nodded and made a mental note to call O'Connell tomorrow.

"I'm sorry I can't be more help," Willow said sheepishly.

"Don't be sorry," Andrea replied, "I know a lot more about this stuff now than I did when I started.

Willow popped her laptop open and started working on something. Andrea sat and read through some reports until she heard Willow sigh. "Anything I can help with?" She asked the redhead.

"What do you know about the Witchfinder case?" Willow asked as she read.

"Just what Pat has passed on, they are up to four dead with the fifth just going missing," Andrea replied.

"Pat asked me to look to see if I could figure out if it was just a normal psycho doing it, or if it might be someone more up our alley. So far, I haven't been able to give him a definitive answer and another woman died while I was wrapped up."

"Have you found anything?"

"Maybe, I found something that makes me think that we might be dealing with an Ascension. But it was so vague that I want to pin it down more before I said anything, err, forget I said that."

"What's an Ascension?" Andrea asked, not willing to let it go.

" A person turns into a pure demon, really ugly. I've only been to one and it wasn't pretty. The Mayor of our town turned into a sixty-foot snake at graduation. Our class was going to be his first meal."

"There is going to be a sixty-foot snake popping up in San Francisco?"

"No, it's defiantly not the same ceremony, but there are lots of ways to ascend. Anya is trying to get me a copy of the Books of Ascension, or at least a translation, so I can see if I'm right. I really hope that I'm wrong."

Willow continued to work right up to the time that the stewardess came back and advised them to buckle up. Willow looked out and watched as Washington passed under the planes wings. "Are we landing downtown? She asked.

"Sort of, we are coming into Reagan National Airport," Andrea replied.

"Have you made arrangements where I'm going to be staying, or do I have to do that?"

"We've taken care of that, we like to look for people who are doing favors for us."

The plane had to circle for a couple of minutes, but Willow soon found herself on the ground and in a black Suburban being whisked through late night Washington traffic. She didn't get a good look at the sights, and she hoped she might steal some time to look through the Smithsonian before she headed back to Sunnydale. All to soon the car pulled into the parking lot of what the sign said was the Treasury Department. "You keep bunks in there?" She asked the agent.

"Kind of," Andrea said in a 'won't you be surprised' voice.

There was a man dressed in a suit, wearing an ear bug, waiting for them. He greeted Andrea, reached over and grabbed Willows luggage, then led the way toward the building. Inside of the lobby, the guard on duty greeted Andrea warmly and held out an ID card to her. She took it and looked at it briefly, then handed it to Willow. "You'll have to wear this at all times Willow," she said.

Willow looked at it and it and saw that it was a White House Visitor's Pass, made out to one Willow Rosenberg. It even had a decent picture of her. "Where did you get my picture from?"

"We got that picture from Buffy while you were kidnapped so searchers would have an idea what you looked like on the chance that Anck-Su-Namun moved you in the open somewhere and someone saw you. I just had them use it to make you a pass. That will allow you access to most places in the White House, though you will need an escort in any but the public areas."

Willow nodded that she understood and followed Andrea to a bank of elevators. She was surprised when Andrea pressed the down key rather than the up, but didn't say anything. The trip was a short one and Andrea led her out past another guard station and into a white-tiled tunnel. About halfway across the tunnel there was a black line in the tile on the wall, on one side it said, 'Treasury Building', on the other it said, 'White House.' About a foot past that line Willow almost gasped as something took a real good look at her, a right down to her soul look at her, and didn't find her wanting. She thought that that was a good thing. Andrea noticed her hesitate and turned with an, "Are you okay," look on her face. Willow just nodded that she was fine and continued walking. On the other end of the tunnel there was another guard station, and once again everything was gone over. Willow wondered how much of this security was because of Andrea being the head of the Presidents Security Detail, and how much of this was simply they way they did things. Judging by the smoothness that they went through the drill she suspected the latter.

After another elevator ride Willow found herself in the White House. Waiting for them was a harried looking man in a LL. Bean shirt. "Ms. Rosenberg? I'm Arnie Van Damm, the President's Chief of Staff. He's sorry that he couldn't be here to greet you in person, but he and the First Lady are at a State Dinner that they could not get out of. He's instructed me to get you settled in, and make sure you have everything you need to do your survey. Also he and The First Lady would like to have diner with you tomorrow night, if that's acceptable?"

Willow gulped, the President of the United States wanted to have dinner with her? She hadn't even voted for him.

Arnie glanced at Andrea while Willow was sorting herself out, "You know where she's staying right?" Andrea nodded. "Then I'll leave you to it. Ms. Rosenberg? It was nice meeting you." When Willow nodded he headed back toward the West Wing of the White House.

"This way Willow," Andrea said, and escorted Willow up a set of stairs in the front hallway and to a door just to the right at the top. Willow found the room to be a little garish, with purple and yellow wallpaper. A large four-poster bed dominated one side of the room, with a small sitting area with a couple of couches and overstuffed chairs on the other. Willow noticed there was a picture of Abraham Lincoln on one wall, and glancing at the coffee table in front of the couch she saw some hand written notes behind a glass case. Intrigued she looked closer and was able to make out, "Four Score and Seven…," She glanced up at Andrea with a questioning look on her face.

"Yes, it's one of the original copies," She answered.

"There sure is a lot of Lincoln memorabilia in here," Willow commented.

"Probably why they call it the Lincoln Bedroom," Andrea replied deadpan.

Willow got that wild-eye look again. "He never slept in here, Willow," Andrea assured her. "That is his bed though."

"Uh, they've changed the mattress since then, right?"

Andrea assured her they had. She then explained that the bedroom did not have an attached bathroom, so if Willow had to go there was one across the hall and for her not to be surprised by the Secret Service Agents stationed outside. It was a normal precaution. She then wished Willow a good night and told her she'd see her about 0730 in the morning and asked what time she wanted to be awakened at.

"Would 6:30 be okay?" she asked. Andrea replied that she would make sure that Willow was awakened at the appropriate time and said goodbye.

Once Andrea was gone Willow spent a couple of minutes looking over the Lincoln artifacts that were in the room, then she carefully pulled the dress she was going to wear tomorrow out of its traveling bag. Seeing that it had not gotten wrinkled during the flight she draped it over one of the chairs and then she dug out her bath stuff and a robe and headed across the hall to the bathroom. It was fairly modern with a commode and a shower stall but no tub. She stripped down and jumped in the shower, as she was showering she got the distinct feeling that someone was watching her. She looked around to see if maybe they had put a camera or something in here, but didn't see anything that looked like one. She looked into the mirror and caught a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye. By the time she'd turned her head though, there was nothing there. Putting it down to nerves, Willow put on her robe and headed back to the Lincoln Bedroom waving at the Secret Service Agent standing guard in the hallway.

She put on a pair of pajamas and turning down the sheet she crawled into bed. As she was pulling the sheets up she became aware of a pair of eyes below some tousled hair staring up at her from the bottom of the bed. She also realized she could still see the couch behind the eyes. "Well hello," she said with a smile. It was a small boy, dressed in old fashion clothes.

The boy smiled back, "Hi! The others were wondering why you are here," he explained in a serious voice.

"The President asked me to come and check out some stuff for him," she replied, not wanting to go into detail until she figured out who this was. She was about to go on when a thought occurred to her, "Hey, that wasn't you in the bathroom just now? Was it?" She said in a 'it better not have been', voice.

"Nah, that was Dolley, she likes to check out the women in the House. I'll see you around the House then, you might not see me though!" He said mischievously. He then turned and ran toward door fading out before he reached it.

Willow smiled and laid her head back into the pillow, it was nice and soft. She was reaching to turn off the light when she became aware that the eyes were back at the bottom of the bed. Cocking an eyebrow she asked, " Yes?"

"My Da says you can look, but don't touch."

Willow considered this, but when the apparition started to fade she called, "Wait, who are you?"

The young boy smiled, "Willy," as he faded from view.

Surprisingly, the nightmares that Willow expected didn't materialize; in fact she couldn't remember dreaming at all. She was awakened by a discreet knock on the door, "Yes?"

"It's 6:30 ma'am, " a soft voice said on the other side of the door.

"Thanks," Willow called as she crawled out of bed.

"Would you care for some breakfast?" The voice asked.

"Some scrambled eggs, sausage, and coffee would be good," she replied as she gathered up her shower stuff again. It might be a little over kill as she had just had one before she'd gone to bed, but a good shower in the morning always woke her up.

As she was leaving the shower an older African American man was pushing a cart with a covered dish and a coffee pot on it down the hall. Willow opened the Lincoln's Bedroom's door for him and said, "Great timing."

"Thanks," the man replied. "We aim to please," he said with a wink.

Willow thanked him, wondering if she should tip him? You would in a hotel, but this was the

White House and maybe you didn't? She was still trying to work it out when he turned to leave, "Don't worry about the tray, we'll get it when we clean the room."

Willow thanked him again as he left and closed the door. For a very brief moment she was to scared to touch the food, what if she spilled something? This was the Lincoln Bedroom! But then the aroma of her breakfast reached her nose and with saliva bursting in her mouth she decided if she spilt anything they could bill her for it. Willow found the food excellent, not that she had really expected it to be other wise. The real surprise came though when she took her first sip of coffee. Her eyes went wide, _So that's what coffee is supposed to taste like, _she thought to herself, _we've been doing it wrong all this time!_

Willow finished off her breakfast and was contemplating seeing if she could get some more coffee when Andrea showed up. She was dressed in a new suit, so Willow figured she had been home, but she couldn't have gotten much sleep, unless she lived down the street from the White House. She looked alert and professional though. Willow was impressed.

"Good morning, Willow," Andrea said smiling.

"Have a good sleep?" She asked.

"Much better than I thought I would. I had a visitor last night," Willow said as she picked up her coat and threw it on.

"Oh?" Andrea asked. The hallway guards hadn't logged anything after Willow had taken a shower.

"It was a young boy, said his name was Willy"

Andrea frowned; the only young boy that hung around the White House right now was Shortstop, or John Patrick Ryan Junior, as the rest of the world knew him, the Presidents oldest boy. Well there was Kyle too, but Andrea was pretty sure he hadn't gotten out of his crib last night.

Willow smiled as she saw that Andrea was trying to figure out who had been in her room, Willow decided to let her off the hook.

"It was a ghost. Apparently the local ghosts were curious about me, so they sent someone in non-threatening to ask me why I was here."

Andrea looked at the witch and cocked an eyebrow. A couple of weeks ago she would have dismissed her as a nut. Oh, sure, she had heard the stories that floated around the house, of footsteps heard where there was no one to make them. Of people saying they'd seen someone standing in a window that dressed in old fashion clothes. Heck, she had even read the reports of ghost sightings in the house, but she had never seen or heard anything herself. It was a lot to take in.

Willow went on, "He also told me his Da said to look, don't touch."

That statement gave her a big clue as to who Willow's visitor might have been. She went over to a bookshelf, and pulling a volume off of it she thumbed through it until she found the page she was looking for, "Is this him?" She asked, holding the book open for Willow to see.

A quick glance is all it took, "Yep, that's him," she confirmed. Then taking a closer look she saw that this was a drawing of Willy Lincoln, the President's young son who died of Typhus while Lincoln was president. Looking up at Andrea she said, "That means his Da is," she wasn't able to finish.

Andrea smiled, "That's probably some good advice then."

Turning serious Andrea asked, "Where do you want to start?"

"Down in the basement, I need to find the Keystone I think."

"That will be in the southwest corner of the building," Andrea replied.

"Not the Cornerstone," Willow corrected, "The Keystone."

"Aren't they the same thing?" Andrea asked, confused.

Willow shook her head as she started out, making sure her ID badge was secure, "The White House has some kind of defense mechanism in place, it has to be bound to some part of the building. It might be the Cornerstone, but I bet that they had some kind of private to-do after hours to set the Keystone, and what ever the defense is, it will be bound to that."

"Okay," Andrea mused, " Let's check out the basement then."


	3. Chapter 3

Witchfinder Chapter 2

By Joseph Black

Disclaimer:  Red Storm and Tom Clancy own Rainbow and Characters.  Joss Whedon owns Buffy and Characters.  Anyone you don't recognize belongs to me.  I make no profit of the following except to have a little fun.

Spoilers: Buffy to present.  Rainbow to Bear and the Dragon.

Authors note 1:  This is a continuation of the story started in 'Rainbow Over Sunnydale'.  It would be helpful to read that fic first.

Authors note 2: I can't seem to get Fanfic to except my special formatting.  So anytime you see this ' anything inside is in a foreign language.  And if you see this it's some ones thoughts.

Authors note 3: 

Thanks to all that reviewed.  Constructive criticisms always welcomed.  Flames cheerfully ignored.

Fic Starts Here:

Willow grabbed her bag of spell ingredients and followed Andrea out of the Lincoln Bedroom.  Waiting at the bottom of the stairs was another person; he was taller than Andrea, had brown hair and a somewhat average face.  He was wearing a blue suit and one of his arms was in a sling.

"Willow, this is agent Ben Bascome, he will be your official escort today," Andrea explained.

"Hi!"  Willow smiled, "What happened to your arm?"

"Sunnydale," the agent replied.

Willow looked between the two Secret Service agents for an explanation.

"When we arrived in Sunnydale we were attacked by Bringers, Ben here was wounded in the attack."

" I still think you were the target boss," Ben argued, "They didn't pay any attention to me until I shot one."

"I'm a little old to be a potential Ben," Andrea countered, "I think The First was sending us a message."

Willow didn't look convinced, "How many Bringers were there?"

"Four."

Willow shook her head, "That seems a little light for a couple of trained agents. When they came after Spike there was a lot more of them."

Andrea frowned, "Don't you think I'm a little old to be a potential?"

Willow nodded, "But there might be something else going on. When I get a chance I'll call Giles."

Andrea shrugged, "Where do you want to start?"

Willow considered it then said, "In the basement.  I think that the Keystone would have been placed at, or just below ground level.

Andrea nodded, then waved for Willow to follow with Ben bringing up the rear.  Ben smiled as he watched Willow gape at the artwork they passed.  It was sad, but when you work somewhere everyday, even the rarest art faded into the background.  There were a couple of Remington's he still checked out when he had a chance, but the rest had just become decorations.

Willow was halfway through the Press Room before she realized where she was.  She stopped and stared at the podium and the chairs, "I've seen this place, it's where you brief the press!"  She said excitedly.  Then taking a good look around she said, "It's a lot grubber than I thought it would be though."

Andrea shrugged again, "The press are largely responsible for this area, and they don't seem to mind."  Waving toward the backdoor Andrea started walking again.  Willow went out the door and down a set of stairs right outside of it.  The basement corridor she found herself in wasn't in a whole lot better shape than the pressroom upstairs, but the carpet at least had been vacuumed recently.   Andrea let Willow take the lead.  Willow reached out with her mystical senses, and almost instantly picked up whatever had looked her over almost instantly.  The feeling was strongest outside a door marked, "Storeroom 14".  "I think the Keystone is in here," she said.

"Okay," said Andrea.  She pulled a set of keys out of her jacket pocket and selecting one opened the door.  Glancing inside she saw that the room was used to store spare tables and chairs for the pressroom upstairs.  Willow walked in and glanced around.  There was enough free room for her to set up, "I think the Keystone is in the far wall.  I'm going to do a ritual to make sure.  If it is, I'll try to figure out what it does, and how it works."

Andrea nodded, "What do you need from us?"

"Not being disturbed would be the biggest thing.  The ritual that I'm doing will involve candles, that won't set off your sprinklers will it?"

"How big are your candles?"  Andrea asked.

Willow pulled one of the one-foot bees wax candles out of her pack, "Just this size."

Andrea smiled, "Your ritual won't involve large jets of flame or anything, right?" Willow shook her head.  "Then you'll be fine, I'll just call it in to let them know that the rise in temperature in the room is you."

"Ben will be outside to make sure no one disturbs you, and if you need anything he can get it for you.  Do you want to be called for lunch?"

Willow thought about it as she started to pull stuff out of her pack, "The ceremonies that I'll be doing aren't dangerous for me to be disturbed, but I'd rather work through lunch and find out as much as I can."

"The President and the First Lady want to have dinner with you tonight," Andrea reminded her, "How much time do you need to get ready?"

Willow had almost forgotten about that, "Uh, how about I stay down here and really study this?"

"Relax, the President and First Lady are great people.  You have nothing to worry about."

Willow sighed, "About ninety minutes?"

"Okay, see you then," Andrea and Ben left the room with Ben closing the door behind them.

Willow fished the rest of ingredients for the spell out of her satchel.  She used the process of pouring out the ritual circle and the precise placements of the candles to center herself.  She sat down tailor fashion facing toward the door and closed her eyes.  Once she was sure she was centered she whispered, "Incindeo." Two things happened then, the candles all blazed to life and all of the electronics in the room stopped working, much to Andrea's consternation.  She'd hoped to observe Willow in action.  Now, she just hoped that the electronics weren't fried.

Unaware of the commotion she had just caused Willow whispered, "Aminaduerto Occultus."  When she opened her eyes she saw that she was correct to face away from the back wall by the glow that was reflecting off the wall in front of her.  She slowly turned her head to see the source of the glow and gasped.  It was like going into a roadside antiques store and finding a Rembrandt or a Monet just hanging on the wall. 

The cause of the glow was a mass of silver blue swirls, no, bands, she realized upon looking closer look. They crisscrossed the wall and seemed to reach out in every direction.  She saw that they were concentrated about five feet off of the floor in the left corner of the room.  She carefully got up and approached the spot.  She became uncomfortably aware that something was also watching her very carefully.  She could tell it wasn't hostile, yet, and judging by the strength she felt she didn't want it getting hostile either.  After studying it for a while she realized she was looking at a ward.  It was more complex than any ward she had ever seen before, but that was what it was.

As she studied the complexities of it Willow realized she wasn't looking at a Monet; rather it was a De Vinci or a Michelangelo. She lost herself in it's intricacies, following the patterns and marveling at how tightly they were wound and slowly working out what each did. It would take months or even years of study to understand it fully but just what she was able to understand took her breath away.

"Willow?"  A gentle voice said.

Willow started started.  Turning in surprise, she found Andrea standing behind her with a concerned look on her face.  "Lunch time already?"

Andrea smiled, relieved to see Willow was alright, when she came in and found Willow staring unblinking at a blank piece of wall she was concerned, "It's five-thirty, the President would like to have dinner at seven."

Willow blinked again, "I didn't realize it was so late!  I got really involved."

Andrea nodded as she motioned out the door, "I take it you found something?" 

"Yeah, but if you don't mind can I hold off on the explanations until dinner so I can think about it some more?"

"It's not likely to become a threat now that you know about it is it?"  Andrea asked.

"If it wanted me to be quiet you would have probably found either a mindless husk, or a smoking corpse," Willow replied seriously. "Who ever cast it did an amazing job. I've only rarely read about something like that, and I've never come across anything so intricate before."

Andrea was curious, but she had the patience to wait for the President's briefing.  Leading Willow back to the Lincoln Bedroom she left Ben outside as Willow went in to get ready and headed back down to the Oval Office where the President was in negotiations with some of the Congressional leadership over several budget issues.  As she slipped in Jack sent her a quick, 'did she find anything look?'  Andrea nodded quickly.

Willow grabbed her shower stuff again and slipping past Ben  went into the bathroom.  About fifteen minutes later she was back out and headed into her room.  After doing her hair and make up she began dressing.  Back in Sunnydale Willow had been concerned, she didn't exactly have any formal wear.  The closest thing she had was her bridesmaids dress from Xander and Anya's abortive wedding.  She didn't really know why she kept it; maybe because she hopped they could get back together.  But, it was easily the ugliest dress she had ever laid eyes on and you couldn't pay her to actually wear it.  She had mentioned having to pick something up to Andrea while she was packing and the Secret Service agent had instead reached into her closet and suggested a suede skirt, with a green blouse with a dark brown floral pattern and a deep green jacket.  Willow had been a little doubtful that it was formal enough to have dinner with the President, but Andrea assured her it was fine, so she had added a pair of black low heel shoes and a set of emerald ear studs her mother had gotten her for graduation and hoped for the best.  Looking at herself in the mirror she decided she didn't look to bad.

A discreet knock on the door was followed by, "Can I come in?"

"It's open, Ben!"  Willow called.

The door opened a crack and Ben stuck his head in, "Does that mean, 'Come in?"

"Sunnydale habits. Giving blanket invites is a good way to end up on the menu," Willow explained.

"So, what do you think?"  Willow asked, as she spun around once, "Good enough to have dinner with the President?"

"And the First Lady," Ben reminded her. Seeing her panicked expression he hastened to add, "You look fine Willow.  If the President could get away with it, he would have a barbeque in the backyard so everyone could wear jeans and a t-shirt."

"He's the President, I'd think he could do what ever he wanted?"  Willow said.

Ben smiled sadly, "Not even close.  Oh, sure.  He could have the barbeque, but then he'd have to answer all those pointed questions about who the redhead was that he was entertaining."

Willow blanched; it was bad enough when that reporter had emailed her. The thought of having the media digging into Sunnydale didn't bear thinking about. "I see what you mean."

"Are you ready?"  Ben asked.

"If I say no, can I stay here?"

"Willow if you really don't want to do this, the President will understand," Ben told her.

"No, it would be rude to not accept.  I'm just so scared of barfing during diner."

"You kill vampires on a nightly basis, have prevented a couple of apocalypses, ….apocalypie, uh," Ben stumbled.

Willow smiled, "We usually use the first one," she told him helpfully.

"…and closed the Mouth of Hell a couple of times," Ben went on shaking his head at her.  "And you are scared of having dinner with someone and his wife?"

"It is the President!"  Willow exclaimed.

"It's Jack and Cathy Ryan, " Ben returned, then looked around as if to see if anyone heard him use the President and his wife's given name.  "Look Willow, I wasn't here for the previous administrations.  Most of those agents died at the Capitol.  But, from what I've heard from the staff; the Drs. Ryan are the most normal people who have held this post in forever.  Just act like your boss has asked you over to discuss some things and you'll be fine."

Willow smiled weakly and nodded.  Ben held the door and motioned her out, Willow followed and Ben led her to a door on the opposite side of the floor from the Lincoln Bedroom.  Ben knocked at the door and a clear alto called from inside, "Come in."  Willow winced.

Ben opened the door and waved her through.  Taking a deep breath and entering she found herself in a small dining area.  She was surprised that it wasn't more formal.  There was a table that was set for three.  A small seating area took up the rest of the room with a large screen TV, a coffee table and a set of three couches in a u pattern.  Seated at the table was a tall blonde woman, dressed in a black sweater and cream pants.  Her blonde hair was shoulder length and she was wearing a simple gold chain.  She was wearing spectacles and had a file open in front of her. As Willow entered, she gathered the papers back into the folder and handed it to the other person in the room. A tall man, dressed in a dark suit like Ben, right down to the ear-bug in his ear. Ben turned to the First Lady and said,  "Dr. Ryan, this is Willow Rosenberg.  Ms. Rosenberg, this is Doctor Cathleen Ryan, the First Lady.

Cathy reached out to Willow, "Pleased to meet you, but please call me Cathy.  May I call you Willow?"

"Uh, sure.  Pleased to meet you Doct…, er Cathy,"  Willow stumbled.

"This is Roy Altman, he's my Secret Service Agent."

"Hi," Willow said.

"Ms. Rosenberg," Roy replied as he set the file down on the coffee table in the room.

"Jack is caught up in some last minute deal making with the Congressional leadership, but he doesn't expect to be very long.  Would you like some Chardonnay while we are waiting?"

Willow nodded, "But just one, I haven't eaten since breakfast."

Cathy looked at Ben, "We couldn't spring for lunch?"

Willow quickly jumped in, "No! No!  I just got so involved in what I was doing I didn't really notice the time passing!"

Roy gave Ben a pointed look, "Who does that remind you of?"

Cathy smiled, "Roy, could you call down to the kitchen and have them send a plate of hor'dourves?"  Roy nodded and passed along the request.

"This is one of my favorite wines," Cathy said as she poured for Willow.  Willow took the glass and sipped the wine.  Willow was not a big wine drinker, she didn't drink alcohol much at all, none of the Scoobies did, except for Giles, who was mostly a scotch drinker, but this was the best wine Willow had ever had.

Cathy invited her to sit and began, "So, what do you think of the White House?"

"What I've seen of it is nice, except for the pressroom, that was kind of groady, the art work is amazing!"  Willow babbled.

Cathy nodded, "We've been gifted with a couple of pieces since we've been here.  We're trying to find places for them. So did you find what you were looking for?"

Willow nodded, "It was amazing too, if I get the time I'd like to research who the wizard was that cast it, I think I could learn a lot if they left any information behind."

"I wish you luck," Cathy told her.  "While we are waiting for Jack, do you think you can answer some of my questions about magic?"

"I can try, but I found out when Andrea asked some questions on the way here, there's a lot I don't know."

"Okay, I'll try and keep my questions general," Cathy said think about were to start.  Well, she was a doctor.  "Can you heal people with magic?"

 "It's not a good idea, but yeah."

"Why?"

"A lot depends on how much you know about how the human body works," Willow began.  "If you understand the processes involved you can guide the magic, if you don't then the magic more or less makes it up as it goes along, you can end up with some nasty messes that way."

Cathy nodded that she got that part.  "The other problem is the cost," Willow continued.

"Cost?"

"The power for the spell has to come from somewhere, the more complex the spell usually the higher the cost.  For simple spells you can do a burnt offering, for more powerful stuff you usually have to sacrifice something or someone."

Cathy looked shocked, "You mean you'd have to offer a human sacrifice to heal someone?"

Willow shrugged, "Probably not a person, but an animal, like a sheep or a goat sure."

"If that's all it takes, why didn't it ever become popular? What's a sheep or a goat to a group of people?"

"Because there is often another cost associated with this kind of magic.  I don't know if the universe likes balance, or if the gods just have a really sick sense of humor, but often, if you use magic to cure someone, someone else comes down with the same thing, often someone you know."

"I can see where that might deter people," Cathy conceded.

There was a quiet knock at the door and when Ben opened it a waiter brought in a covered tray.

He removed the cover and Willow saw that several different kinds of quiche.  Willow chose a spinach quiche, while Cathy took a shrimp.  Willow found hers delicious and the talking stopped as they ate.  When they were just about finished eating, the conversation started again, but it was just more of a getting to know you type. 

Cathy asked exactly what Willow did for a living besides helping Buffy, and Willow explained that right now she was living off of a trust fund that her mom and set up, and some freelance computer projects.  Willow asked about Cathy's work in ophthalmology, which Cathy was always happy to talk about.  Once the quiches was finished, Cathy offered Willow another glass of wine, which she acdeped.  Willow asked what it was like living in the White House, and Cathy told her how hard it was, especially on her eldest, who complained that the omni- presence  of the Secret Service was cramping her social life.  Willow smiled and explained that Dawn had many of the same complaints because they needed to keep an eye on her to make sure that nothing grabbed her to use her against Buffy, not that that didn't happen every now and then anyway. 

"Cathy," Willow said suddenly, "Do you think Sally would like a pen pal that could at least commiserate with her?"

"Dawn?"  Cathy asked frowning, "We haven't really discussed the supernatural with Sally yet, for that matter would Dawn even be interested?"

"I can ask," Willow said.

"If she's interested let me know," Cathy said.

"Excuse me Dr. Ryan? The President is on his way up Ma'am," Ray Altman told her.

Willow gulped, but the door opened before her nervousness had a chance to do more than cause her stomach to turn over a couple of times.  Jack Ryan came into the room. Willow popped to her feet, Cathy stood up and smiled at her husband who returned it. Willow saw that he didn't dress any differently than when she saw him on TV. He was wearing a blue suit and a white shirt, with a blue and red tie.  He looked older close up, not ancient or anything, just there were more wrinkles around his eyes than she noticed when she saw him on news.  He held out his hand and said, "Thank you for coming Willow, especially with all you went through last week."

"It's no problem Mr. President, I needed to get out of Sunnydale for a little while," Willow replied.

"Please, in private, call me Jack," the President told her.

"Uh, okay," Willow agreed.  She wasn't too sure about that, if she remembered etiquette right, you where always supposed to call the President, Mr. President.  On the other hand he had just told her to call him Jack, Willow hated this kind of thing!

Willow waited until The President sat then re-took her seat.  A steward entered the room pushing a tray with three salads on it.  He placed one in front of Willow, then the First Lady, and finally Jack.  Willow found the Cesar salad good, just like all of the meals she had encountered here.  She was going to miss this when she got back to Sunnydale.  The Scoobies were good at a lot of things, but she was the only one that could cook.

"So, Willow.  Andrea told me you found something today," Jack said after a couple of bites.

"I did," Willow replied.  "In the future I wonder if it would be possible to do some research in your archives to see if I can find anything more about it."

Jack noticed as she began talking her nervousness all but disappeared, "It?"  He asked.

Willow blushed, "The White House is protected by a ward.  It's designed to protect the Presidency from supernatural manipulation."

"How?"

"This I'm not a hundred percent sure of, but I think that it can detect when magic is used that way, then it manipulates the situation to negate the threat."

"You mean it alters reality?"  Cathy asked, "Is that even possible?"

"You bet'cha," Willow said, and then blushed when she realized how flippant she had been. Jack and Cathy smiled at her, and Jack made a 'go on' gesture.

"I've been involved in two reality altering events.  One I don't remember at all, but I've met the result, a vampire me.  The other you might remember, does the name Jonathan Levinson mean anything to you?"

Cathy frowned as she vaguely remembered conferencing with a Jonathan Levinson a couple of years ago on a tricky case, "I think I consulted with a doctor by that name a couple of years ago," Cathy began, "You don't mean?"

Willow nodded that yes, "Jonathan Levinson was a classmate of mine.  He cast a spell to make himself a renaissance man.  It altered reality so he was the best at everything.  The spell ended up being broken and he went back to being normal.

"But I don't think the ward alters reality.   What I think it usually does is to nudge the individual into making some kind of mistake that stops whatever they are planning.  I'm pretty sure that it is capable of direct action, but that would be a last resort."

"So if magic is barred from the White House, how did you get in?"  Cathy asked.

"It doesn't bar magic from the White House, just the use of magic in manipulating the Office of the Presidency."

"What would happen if a demon or a wizard were to be elected President?"  Jack wondered aloud.

"If they tried to use magic of any kind in the election they would be stopped," Willow replied.

"Lighting bolt from the blue?"  Jack asked with a raised eyebrow.

"More likely they would be nudged into saying or doing something stupid that would destroy their chance at the Presidency.  Like maybe they would deny having a mistress, invite the press to follow them around and then go to her house."  Willow replied.

"So it couldn't have been magic that got me the Presidency then?"  Jack asked.

Willow thought about this as the salad dishes were cleared away and the main course was set before her; roast beef, broccoli Normandy, and garlic-mashed potatoes.  Realizing she was keeping the President waiting she said, "Unless whoever did it intended to either take control, or directly influence you, I don't think that the ward would have reacted to it, but I don't know for sure.  Andrea is going to talk to Lt. O'Connell out in Sunnydale to see if she can get in contact with the magical community.  They would probably be able to answer your questions better than I can."

Jack nodded and they enjoyed the meal for a couple of minutes with light, getting to know you conversation.  The conversation worked its way around to what had just happened to Willow during her kidnapping.  Cathy wasn't originally sure if that subject was the best for Willow so soon after it, but Willow took being kidnapped, wrapped up like a mummy, and spending time in the Ante-chamber of Hell like it was routine.  Willow edited a lot of what she had seen on the wall, and became a little misty eyed when she told of Tara coming to her.  When she ended with 'Know what you know' Jack nodded and said, "Always good advice."

"That made sense to you?"  Willow asked in a surprised voice.

The President nodded, "It's something that new analysts are told.  It's another way of saying 'never assume', and it's easier to say than 'Just because someone else tells you, or that it's the way it's always been, doesn't mean it's that way now'.

Willow set back and thought about it, "Okay, Tara must have been telling us we're missing something," Looking at the President and First Lady she asked, almost plaintively, "What are we missing?"

Both shrugged.

Over desert, key lime pie and more of that wonderful coffee, Jack said, "Willow, I appreciate you coming to Washington and checking out the White House, I was wondering if I could ask one more favor."

Willow nodded

"I'm meeting with some of my main advisors tonight, I'd appreciate it if you could give them a briefing similar to the one you gave Andrea on the way out."

"Mr. Presi…. Jack, I'm not even completely sure I'm giving you completely correct information.  You'd be better off waiting for someone with a formal education to do that."

"Willow," Jack began, "There was a time I passed on some information on a new Russian sub.  When that sub disappeared in front of one of ours, I was tapped to brief the National Security Advisor, so I have a good idea how you feel. I'll give you the same advice that James Greer gave me.

'Jack,' he said, 'You know more about this subject than anyone else in the room.  They'll ask direct questions, give them direct answers, tell them what you think, and above all? Relax!'  The last part didn't really work, and I ended up on a plane heading out to an aircraft carrier, but I promise that won't happen here."

Willow thought about if for a little while then asked, "Will there be more of this coffee?"

"I think I can arrange for some," Jack replied.

"You got yourself a briefer," Willow smiled.


	4. Chapter 4

Witchfinder Chapter  3

By Joseph Black

Disclaimer:  Red Storm and Tom Clancy own Rainbow and Characters.  Joss Whedon owns Buffy and Characters.  Anyone you don't recognize belongs to me.  I make no profit of the following except to have a little fun.

Spoilers: Buffy to present.  Rainbow to Bear and the Dragon.

Authors note 1:  This is a continuation of the story started in 'Rainbow Over Sunnydale'.  It would be helpful to read that fic first.

Authors note 2: I can't seem to get Fanfic to except my special formatting.  So anytime you see this ' anything inside is in a foreign language.  And if you see this it's some ones thoughts.

Authors note 3: 

Thanks to all that reviewed.  Constructive criticisms always welcomed.  Flames cheerfully ignored.

Fic Starts Here:

The ding of the Buffybot finishing its POST and boot brought Willow out of her reverie.  The android opened her eyes and took a quick around the room.  Spotting Willow it smiled and said, "Hello Willow, my chronometer indicates that I have been offline for a long time, I will need a complete update."

"I'm sorry Buffybot, but your were damaged last year and we weren't able to afford to fix you," Willow explained as she put a disc into her laptop.  Taking a USB cord she plugged one end into her laptop and the other into the Buffybot's chest.  "This will bring you up to date on everything that has happened since you went offline."

The Buffybot nodded, then smiled, "Hello Dawn!  How have you been?"

"Hi Buffybot!" Dawn said with clear pleasure at seeing the robot Buffy operational again.  "I've been fine, how are you feeling?"

"All my systems are nominal, thank you for asking," Buffybot replied, "And Willow is downloading the information of what has changed."

Dawn nodded.  Turning to Willow she handed her a notebook, and the books and scrolls that Willow had wanted her opinion on.  She frowned and simply said, "You were right."

Down the hall Buffy dreamed.  She found herself walking down a woodland path. It was a woodland that mankind had never touched.  The trees looked to be some kind of pine tree, but their first branches were higher than even she could jump and the base of their trunks were so huge, she bet if you hollowed one out you would have enough space for a two car garage.  She sensed that she wasn't in her own body, and when she tried to stop the dream she no effect, so she just settled down for the ride.  The trail went up at a steep angle until it came to a clearing.  In the distance she saw a magnificent waterfall, a single stream of water that looked like it fell a thousand feet before she lost sight off it in spray and rainbows.  At the back of the clearing there was a cave, man height and deep enough that she couldn't see the back of it, a littering of fresh bones around its mouth said that a predator lived there.  The body that Buffy was sharing walked up to the mouth of the cave and heaved a rabbit carcass into it.  Buffy saw that the arm was a bronze color, not tanned, but its natural color. There was a red and blue beaded band around its wrist.  From inside the cave cracking and chewing noises came, when they finished a voice, a clear tenor that said you shouldn't take life too seriously, asked, "Well?"

"They've started running," the voice of the body replied, Buffy thought she should recognize it, but she couldn't place it.

"Start with the ring then," came the reply.

Buffy awoke. _Now what the heck did that mean?_ 

1600 Pennsylvania Av.  
Washington D.C.  
08Nov2002

08:20 Hours

Jack stood as Dan Murray and Lt. Col Joshua McCloud came into the room.  Motioning the two men to the seats in front of his desk he sat and looked at his Director of the FBI expectantly.

"Morning Jack," Dan began.

"Not 'Good' morning?" Jack asked.

"Not with the news I just got," Murray replied.  "Willow called in about an hour ago, she finally finished deciphering those books she got for the Witchfinder Case.

"She's convinced we are dealing with an ascension, but she can't narrow it past two types of demon."

"How bad is it?"  Jack asked.  Willow had gone over the details of her high school graduations when she briefed him and his 'Kitchen Cabinet' when she had been in to check out the White House and everyone had found the concept of someone turning into a sixty-foot snake incredible.  He had checked with Colonel McCloud the next day to find out what the Initiative had on the event, only to find out that they had somehow missed the whole thing.

"Both are nasty," Dan said, "Which do you want to hear about first?"

"Whichever is worse," Jack replied fatalistically.

"Damage wise it would be the Arcrotic demon," Dan said as he passed a drawing over.  The demon was vaguely reptilian.  It was bipedal with long jaws filled with pointy teeth and a long spiked tail.  At the bottom of the paper there were some vegetation drawn. Looking at the drawing for a couple of seconds Jack realized they were supposed to be trees.  That made the creature at least three, maybe even four hundred feet tall.

"Damn, that thing is Godzilla scale," Jack commented.

"Yeah, and not the wimpy American one either," Dan agreed, his youngest had dragged him to that movie, and hadn't stop complaining about it for a week afterward.

"Well it won't be hard to miss when it shows up," Jack replied.

"If there is anyone around to see it," replied Dan.

Jack looked up for an explanation to that statement.

"It takes nine witches sacrificed a week apart to complete the ritual to ascend into that type of demon.  The last witch sacrificed triggers an earthquake. Depending on the power of the witches it can be anywhere from a six point oh, to a ten point five.  The demon draws energy from the earthquake and that determines his size and power."

"10.5?"  Jack asked, "Are we talking about Nevada being beachfront property?"

"No. When I saw how big those earthquake this thing triggered could be I called down Palm Key and asked our Presidential Science Advisor what the results would be."

"You briefed Benton into the possible supernatural aspects of this case on the phone?"  Jack asked.  He had been seriously considering getting Benton up here to be briefed in on the supernatural, but he was in the middle of some important experiments and had asked not to be summoned unless it was a true emergency, of course if this didn't qualify, nothing did.

"No, I phrased it like I'd watched one of the Discovery Channel programs on Mega Disasters and was worried about how right they had gotten it.  Turns out the Pacific Plate is pushing under the North American Plate so California is actually raising out of the sea not sinking into it.  If that 10.5 goes off the area around San Francisco, the area will raise forty or fifty feet with lesser upheavals up and down the coast.  The actual affects will be felt from Seattle to San Diego with significant damage going well inland."

Jack grunted with the scale of the disaster.

"It gets better though," Dan said.  If it's a superqake Benton says it could set off any number of the volcanoes in the Cascade Range and it even has a decent chance of waking up the Long Valley Caldera."

"Long Valley?"  Jack asked.  "I don't think I've heard of that volcano."

" It's a super-volcano located over by Mammoth Mountain," Dan told him, "Though technically I think Mammoth Mountain is part of it."

"How bad would it be if it brewed up?"  Jack asked.

Dan shrugged, "The last time it blew it put 150 cubic miles of crap into the air.  Benton says that when Tambora put 10 cubic miles into the air it caused the 'Year Without a Summer'.

Jack paled. "If it is this type of demon we have two weeks to find this guy?"

Dan nodded, "Basically, we still have three days this week to find him."

"How long would it take to evacuate the danger area?"  Jack asked.

"We looked into evacuating various cities in cases like this," Colonel McCloud said.  "In this case do we plan on worst case or best case?  Worse case, which would be a 10.5 quake followed by massive volcanic activity we could be looking at having to evacuate everything west of the Mississippi practically.  That would say nothing about the real possibility of large number of refugees from northern Mexico and southern Canada. Plus we would have to deal with the creature itself."

"Are we talking about Godzilla?"  Jack asked.

"Basically, I doubt it would be quite that tough, but conventional weapons would likely be of limited use, certainly nothing smaller than heavy artillery would have any effect."

"What about the other demon?"  Jack asked.

"The other type is called a Maginus Demon," Dan passed over another drawing.  This one looked a lot like the Balrog from Lord of the Rings, with fiery wings and rams horns.  "If this is the demon then we have three days before it rises.  In that case, it's the power level of the last witch sacrificed that determines how far reaching its effects are.  Basically every person with any magical aptitude with in a 50 to 200 kilometer radius will spontaneously combust.  The person ascending will absorb the energy released by this until they hit critical mass, then they will explode."

"How big?"  Jack asked.

"Five to twenty kilotons," Dan replied. "And according to Willow, San Francisco has one of the highest per capita populations of people with magical aptitude on the planet. So, the blast will probably be on the larger side.

"I think we need to bring Buffy and Willow in on this one, ASAP."

"Approved," Jack told his friend.  "What do we know about this last victim?"

 "It's weird, the other victims were all obviously connected with the supernatural some how.  Fortunetellers, New Age priestesses, supposed minor witches.  This one runs a nightclub.  She's a single mother who lives with her two sisters.  Her name is Piper Halliwell."

Andrews Air Force Base  
Washington D.C.  
8Nov2002  
09:55 Hours

 Captain Thomas Anderson was steamed.  He was the Army's foremost expert on Artificial Intelligence, heck he'd bet he was the military's foremost expert, not that those weenies in the Chair Force would give him the time of day. He had been five hours from being able to prove it too.  His Gremlin autonomous scout robot had been ready to go.  It would be released somewhere within fifty miles of Groom Lake programmed to recon the secret base.  They had managed to get every sensor/scout platform that the US Military possessed; from guys on the ground with binoculars and thermal sights right up to a Dark Star UAV covering the approaches to the base, plus the sensors that the base already had installed to keep people away from Area 51. He knew, not thought, but knew, that the Gremlin could beat them.  Five hours!  Five hours before the exercise was to commence someone had pulled the Dark Star. 

He had pointed out to General Miller, the project head, that what they had was a plenty daunting enough for a test, but the General had been adamant, he wanted the Dark Star to be in on it.  Without it, he felt that the Air Force would claim that it could have picked up the robot and that would invalidate the test.  So, he had postponed, which meant everything they needed would not now be available before summer next year.  Tom refrained from punching the wall of the aircraft he was in.

Yesterday, General Miller had approached him about volunteering for a special project to examine a piece of technology that the army had come across.  The way he said it implied that it was either this or busy work for the next six or seven months, so Tom had agreed.  He had been instructed to be at Andrews Air Force Base at 08:00 the next day in civilian clothes. He was to be packed for at least a two-week deployment and to bring whatever tools he thought he might need.  He had gotten up at 05:00 and been to Andrews at 06:30 to make sure his equipment had been packed correctly in the hold of the VC-20 he would be flying in.  They had just sealed the doors and started the engines when the engines wound down and the steward came back and explained that they had been put on hold for another passenger. That had been almost two hours ago.

A Chevy Suburban sped onto the tarmac and stopping next to the boarding ramp and a middle age man jumped out of the back seat with a soft-sided suitcase and hurried aboard.  Tom was surprised when he realized the man was Daniel Murray, the head of the FBI.

He quickly took his seat and the engines started again as the steward closed the door.  Dan smiled at the army officer as he strapped in. He held off on conversation until the VC-20 reached cruising altitude.

"I'm afraid I owe you an apology or two," he began.

Tom was surprised, it wasn't often you had the head of a major organ of government apologizing to anyone, let alone a lowly army captain.  Plus he couldn't imagine what the FBI had to apologize to him for. "For what, sir?" Tom respectfully asked.

"First, for making you wait for me today.  I'm going to Sunnydale too, and we don't want to have too many planes coming in there.  The other thing is that I'm the guy who grabbed that Dark Star you were going to use in your test.  I can't tell you what we needed it for yet, but rest assured it was of vital importance that we did."

Tom darkened slightly; did this suit realize exactly what he had screwed up?  Tom kept track of the national and international news; he couldn't remember anything going on two weeks ago that would have required a Dark Star.  For that matter the Dark Star was strictly a military UAV, okay it didn't mount any weapons, not like some of the predator drones did, but it still should have been out of use for any of the domestic law enforcement or intelligence agencies to use.

On the other hand, when the Director of the FBI offered a lowly army captain an apology, only an idiot would let pride keep him from accepting, "Thank you sir, I hope someday I can learn what exactly screwed up my test."

"I think I can safely say that you will," Dan said.

814 Front St.  
Sunnydale, CA  
8Nov2002  
11:00 Hours

A Ford Explorer driven by Cory Unger had met Dan Murray and Captain Thomas Anderson at the airport.  Frank Miller had been along as an extra gun incase of trouble.  Tom had looked the two over and came to the conclusion that they were both Special Forces.  He started thinking of about what they could have found that would require his expertise and came up blank.  He knew other nations were working on robots similar to what he was doing, but as far as he knew no one was really close.  He was less surprised at the seeming warehouse they pulled into.  Frank Miller, the guy riding shotgun, waved him toward the entrance.  Inside it still looked like a warehouse, with a couple of SUVs and one sedan parked on the floor.  "Captain Anderson?  General Clark is waiting for you in his office," Miller told the army officer.

"Ms. Summers is in the gym giving us a work out," Cory Unger told Dan.  His tone of voice suggested he wasn't totally heartbroken that he had the duty to pick the Director up at the airport.

Tom followed his guide up a set of wooden steps.  At the top Miller knocked on the door and when a 'Come' sounded from within he stuck his head in and said, "Pardon me General, Captain Anderson is here."

"Send him in," a cheerful voice came from inside.

Tom entered the room and stated, "Captain Thomas Anderson, reporting as ordered."

"Have a seat Captain, I have a job I hope you'll be interested in."

As Anderson said, "Thank you General," he checked out the room and its occupants.

His first thought was, _If this man is a general I'll eat the Gremlin. _ Anderson had met more than his share of generals while he had been selling the Gremlin.  This man didn't have the vibe that they had, of course the vibe he did have was scary.  Anderson realized he was looking him over too.  He had the same kind of eyes that a couple of Special Forces soldiers he'd met during his project. Uncomfortable with the scrutiny Tom checked out the other person in the room.  She was short blonde and had a slightly vacuous expression on her face.  When she realized he was checking her out she smiled at him.  _What was she doing in classified briefing?_

Clark cleared his throat to attract the AI expert's attention.  "Captain Anderson, we recently came into possession of piece of equipment with advanced artificial intelligence capabilities.  We need someone to figure out its full capabilities, maintain, and repair it."

_Great, a grease monkey job, _Tom thought to himself.  Aloud he said, "General, I'd be happy to look at it and try to figure out what it can do, but I have to warn you, if General Miller manages to get hold of the equipment and personnel to test my current project I'll be recalled.  You might want to find someone who doesn't have prior commitments."

"Captain, I asked Tony Brentano for the best, he sent you.  Even if I can only have you for a couple of weeks it'll be worth it.  Plus, when you see what we've got, you might decide to stay anyway."  Clark could see that the young army captain thought that there was nothing out there that would lure him away from the Gremlin. 

"Okay sir, then show me what you got."

The General waved at the blonde in the room, "Buffybot? Captain Thomas Anderson will be your system administrator for now."

The blonde turned to him and in a perky voice said, "Please state administrator passwords now."

Captain Thomas Anderson said, "Huh?"

"I'm sorry Captain Thomas Anderson, but that is insufficient for an administrator override, please pick at least seven numbers, or a four word statement."

"Can you cook?"  Tom asked, still dazed.

"That is only three words, and I can make pancakes and macaroni and cheese."

"Will you marry me?"

"Administrator password accepted." 

Dan followed the Rainbow Trooper into the gym.  It looked like almost everyone was here. Most were in the bleachers cheering on the quintet that was on the floor. Ding Chavez was walking around the edge of the circle acting as a referee. In the center was a small blonde haired woman dressed in gray workout clothes and wearing one of those sleep-mask things as a blindfold.  Surrounding her was four much larger men wearing sweats.  Two were armed with those dueling pikes that they taught hand-to-hand combat with and two had bolos.

"Is that fair?"  Dan asked Cory.

"Well the Major is seeing if we can borrow a prisoner transfer belt from the locals to see if we can tie one arm behind her back; but the blindfold is as close as we've come to evening things out so far."  Seeing the look on the directors face Cory said, "Just watch Mr. Murray, you'll see."

So Dan watched.  The guys with the bolos started swinging them around their heads.  One of them stomped the ground, then released the bolo.  The other waited about a half second then released his.  As soon as he did the two men with the pikes started in. 

The two bolos came in, the first came in just off of the floor, the second about two feet above it. They obviously expected to Buffy to leap over the first and the second to catch her ankles as she was in air.  Buffy fooled them, she didn't leap over the first, she skipped over it like she was jumping rope. She then crouched down and caught the second around her waist, using her hands to catch the weights at the end of cords.  She then reached backwards and grabbed that man's dueling pike and giving a deceptively easy yank pulled it right out of his hands, at the same time giving him a kick in the solar plexus that sent him flying.  She blocked the blow from man in front of her and then did a leg sweep on him.  She turned with the lance so the two bolo-men, now holding a couple of zip-ties with the pike in a guard position.

"Okay, call!"  Ding Chavez yelled from the sidelines.

Dan could only stare; there was no way he just saw what he thought he saw.

Tom shook himself.  He turned back to the General and saw the smile on his face.  "Sorry sir, I just never thought anything like this was possible yet."

"That's okay Captain, I was surprised myself how life-like she is."  It didn't seem right somehow to call the robot an it.

"If I may ask, where did we come across her?" Anderson asked.

"You may, though there is more to the story than I'm going to give you here.  We are in contact with some locals who acquired the 'bot from it's owner.  It was damaged and though one of them knew how to fix it they lacked the funding. We offered pay for its repairs in return for its use."

"Can I meet the person who repaired her?"  Anderson requested.

"Yes, she's downstairs right now.  You'll have to hurry though, she'll be leaving with Dan Murray."

"Do you know if she knows the designer?"

"Yes," Clark replied.  Then in a serious tone went on, "You are however, not to question her about him. He's dead, and he killed her girlfriend, so there is no reason to bring up the subject."

Anderson recognized an order when he heard one.  He'd have to look to see if there was some other way to get this information.  Tom knew he was one of the top robotics people in the world, and whoever had built the Buffybot blew him away.

Turning to the andriod Anderson said, "Buffybot, I want you to patrol the building.  If you find anything of interest find me and bring it to my attention."

The Buffy-bot nodded and said, "Okey-doke."  she then stood and went out the door.

"I need to see how it interprets instructions," Anderson explained to the general.

Down in the gym Willow noticed Dan's arrival.  Climbing down from where she was sitting she said, "Dan, glad to see you again."

Dan nodded and held out his hand, "Wish it was under better circumstances."

Willow nodded and looked back out on the floor where Buffy was going over in slow motion the move she had used to disarm Sergeant Major Benton, who was standing there rubbing his stomach. 

Dan was watching to and though no expert on hand-to-hand combat, he could see that the British soldier was no slouch. "Has Buffy been kicking them around a lot?"  He asked.

Willow nodded, "She says that right now she's showing them that they are the underdogs out there.  She's afraid that with the training and experience they got they will get themselves into a serious problem by unconsciously thinking they are dealing with humans."

Ding noticed Dan for the first time and tapping Buffy on the back he nodded his way.  Buffy waved and headed for a door on the far wall that Dan assumed lead to the showers.

Soon after he disappeared John and Tom Anderson entered the gym.  Walking up to them John greeted Dan and turning to Willow said, "Willow this is Captain Thomas Anderson US Army.  He's going to be looking after the Buffybot for us.  Captain Anderson?  This is Willow Rosenberg."

Tom couldn't believe how young Willow was.  Okay she wasn't the designer, but if she fixed it she most understand a lot that went into it. "Miss Rosenberg," he began, "That is an amazing piece of technology."

'Isn't she though?"  Willow agreed.

"If I may ask, where did you acquire her from?"

Willow was about to answer when Tom noticed the Buffybot coming across the gym floor toward them.  For some reason during it's patrol it must of decided that it needed to change clothes and take a shower judging by it's slightly damp hair.  As it walked up to them he asked, "Yes Buffybot?  What did you find?"

Clark cleared his voice, "Ah Buffy, this is Captain Anderson.  He's going to be looking after BB for us."

Buffy turned to the army captain and in a cold voice said, "If you are going to be here for any length of time, you had better figure out someway to tell us apart."


	5. Chapter 5

Witchfinder Chapter  4

By Joseph Black

Disclaimer:  Red Storm and Tom Clancy own Rainbow and Characters.  Joss Whedon owns Buffy and Characters. Anyone else you recognize belongs to their respective owners.  Anyone you don't recognize belongs to me.  I make no profit of the following except to have a little fun.

Spoilers: Buffy to present.  Rainbow to Bear and the Dragon.

Authors note 1:  This is a continuation of the story started in 'Rainbow Over Sunnydale'.  It would be helpful to read that fic first.

Glossary

CNO:  Chief of Naval Operations

CinCSubs: Commander in Chief Submarines  
ComSubLant: Commander Submarines Atlantic Ocean

Thanks to all that reviewed.  Constructive criticisms always welcomed.  Flames cheerfully ignored.

Fic Starts Here:

Captain Tom Anderson sputtered, "I'm sorry Ms. Summers, no one told me that the Buffybot was modeled on a real person or that she was in the area." Captains  as a rule didn't glare at generals; it took all of Tom's self-control not to do it anyway.

Buffy though had no need for such self-control, "You had to do that didn't you?"

John smiled and shrugged, "Couldn't resist."

"Try next time."

Before the argument could go any farther Sergeant Osa came into the gym with a light sheen of sweat covering the exposed parts of his body, "The jeep is loaded sir," he told General Clark.

"Okay, I'll just put the Troll Hammer in the back and I'm ready to go," Buffy said.

"All ready there Buffy," Osa said, with a little bit of pride in his voice.

"I'm impressed," Buffy said.  Osa almost blushed.

Clark, however, was not impressed, "Sergeant, we are short handed enough, we can't afford having someone on sick call because they threw their back out trying to impress people!"

Osa nodded that he understood, "Sorry sir."

Clark shook his head, "Just think next time.  I've helped to lift that thing, it's heavier than it looks, and it looks like it weighs a ton!"

Anderson for his part was confused, what the heck could give the beefy soldier problems to lift that Buffy could handle easily?  Judging by her physique she shouldn't be able to handle more than a hundred pounds, and that might be pushing it.

Clark saw Anderson's confusion so he said, "Captain, let's head back to my office and I'll explain exactly what we are doing in Sunnydale, and what I expect your duties, or rather the Buffybot's duties will be."

Dan Murray, Willow and Buffy headed for the SUV, picking up sergeants Unger and Miller as they went.  Dan was curious about what the machine-gunner had placed in the vehicle himself, especially when he saw how far down on the rear springs the SUV was.  "What are you bringing with you?" He asked.

"Everything but the kitchen sink," Buffy replied. "For the last ascension we needed about a half ton of explosives to kill the demon.  I'm figuring that if we end up having to blow it up you guys can get that stuff.  If it's unblowaupable then it will be on me and the Troll Hammer. It's about the heaviest thing we have."

Dan nodded to himself, but if it were that three hundred foot thing, would the hammer be enough?

1600 Pennsylvania Ave.  
8Nov2002  
Washington D.C.  
14:15 hrs

Tony Brentano led the CNO and an unknown Vice Admiral into the Oval Office.  Jack didn't think he had ever seen the Secretary of Defense with a grimmer expression on his face.  "Mr. President?  You know Admiral Seaton," he said, gesturing at the CNO, "This is Vice Admiral Dean Winslow, CinCSubs."

"Gentlemen," Ryan greeted them.  Turning to the SecDef he asked, "You have some options for dealing with these things if they show up?"

"I passed the word to General Diggs at Fort Irwin and he's starting to work up some options.  I sent Col. McCloud out there to act as a supernatural consultant.  He is going to loan Cindy Stewart to Dan and Buffy, he thinks maybe they can use a sensitive to help find this killer."

"We're here because we worked out some options if General Diggs isn't capable of handling the demons."

Looking at Tony's face Jack knew he wasn't going to like these options.

"If conventional weapons aren't effective on them we have to consider other alternatives," Tony began.

"No," Jack said emphatically.  "I will not order a nuclear strike on an American city.  Especially one that has either just suffered a devastating earthquake, or one that for all practical purposes has just been nuked once already."

"Jack, I know how you feel, I'm not suggesting this lightly, nor should this option be our primary response.  But, if this is the only way to stop it, do we let that thing get into areas that haven't been destroyed yet?"

Jack frowned; he pushed the call button on his desk, "Ellen?  Could you ask the Vice President to join me in my office?  Tell him it's important."

Robby Jackson entered the office two minutes later and was quickly brought up to speed.  He wasn't any happier about this than Jack, in fact, if anything, he was less happy than the President. He actually had to contemplate giving the order to destroy Chinese cities if the nuke that had been targeted on Washington earlier this year had hit.  Jack had decided to ride the attack out on an Ageis Cruiser that had been brought in to guard the Capitol.  If it hadn't stopped the inbound missile Robby would have been the first black president and his first order would have been to kill God knows how many Chinese in response to the attack.  Now they were talking about killing an American city?

"Right now, we are likely only to have to take this option against the Arcrotic Demon," Brentano explained, "And quite probably not even against that.  We now have over a hundred of the deep penetrator bombs we used in China. Judging by the damage they did to the bridges we targeted to cut the supplies to the army that had invaded Russia, they should be able to take down even the big one. We'll be able to deliver them from F-117s and that should solve the problem."

"How would the nukes be delivered?"

"By Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles fired from a navy submarine off of the California Cost."

"Which sub?"

"The USS Connecticut," Admiral Winslow spoke for the first time. "I know the skipper and even if he is a bit unconventional, I trust him implicitly."

"Who is it?" Robby asked.

"Captain Thomas Dodge," Winslow replied.

Robby frowned,   "Isn't he the guy with a tattoo on his prick?"

Jack looked up surprised, "A tattoo on his …?"  He couldn't finish the sentence.

Winslow shrugged, "I understand it involved copious amounts of alcohol after he sideswiped a Russian boomer off of Murmansk."

"Do I want to know what kind of tattoo it is?"  POTUS asked.

Robby just shook his head.

"Just out of curiosity how did this man get a Seawolf?"

"That was my doing," Winslow said.  "Two years ago I was ComSubLant and I thought that we were getting sloppy in defending ourselves.  I believed that someone in an old diesel boat could raise some Cain along our Atlantic seaboard because my bright boys in their nukes didn't view those kinds of boats as a threat.  Tom Dodge's career had largely been in the dumpster after the brushing incident but he still managed to fight his way up to the rank of commander.  I looked his file over and thought he was perfect for the project.  Yancy Graham, who was a squadron commander for the Norfolk area and was one of biggest proponents of the theory that we had nothing to worry about from diesel boats, took to the idea right off, he never got past the surface of the file and figured Dodge for a screw up.  Just to make sure, he gave him every problem case in the Atlantic Submarine Fleet and an old Balao class sub to fix up.  I'm still not exactly sure how they managed to do it, but Dodge nailed both of his assigned targets.  He also did me the favor of providing enough evidence to torpedo Yancy Graham's career at the same time."

"That still doesn't explain why he got a Seawolf, hell I'd think the Navy would have kept him and his sub around to keep running training missions if he's that good at it."

'I had to make a deal with him, he gets both targets, he'd get a nuke command.  He did such a beautiful job I had to give him Connecticut.  Since he took his crew with him, and I think they had as much to do with the success he achieved, I didn't see any reason to continue the program. He's based out of Bangor, Washington, I think they are the best we have in the area."

Jack leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.  He stayed there for over a minute before he rocked back forward.  "Robby?" He asked in a very tired voice.

"I think we have to take out the insurance Jack.  If that big demon shows up, the survivors everywhere else defiantly don't need that thing coming a knocking."

"Let me think on it Gentlemen, I'll give you my answer by morning."

Orange County Correctional Institute for Women.  
Los Angeles CA  
8Nov2002  
11:20 hrs

Faith was doing sit-ups in her cell.  Well they were technically called sit-ups because she was curling up to touch her knees with her chin.  But rather than laying on the floor, she had her legs hooked over the top bunk.  She had originally done this by hooking her legs over the cross pieces that made up the bars at the front of her cell, but the guards had pitched a fit.

"Hey Lehane," Brannigan's voice came from outside the cell, a certain smugness in it, "You've got a visitor."

Faith was halfway through a curl when she heard that hated name.  She leaned her head back to stare at the prison guard upside down.  She was seriously ticked at whoever had passed that information on to him.

For his part Brannigan was impressed, he was in good shape and he knew he couldn't hold the position that Lehane was holding this long.  Holding herself perfectly still Faith asked, "Who?"

"Some lady shrink wants to talk to you," He replied.  Bringing his hands out from behind his back he showed the Slayer a prisoner transfer belt and a pair of leg shackles, "You want to talk to her?"

Route 41  
Sunnydale, CA  
8Nov2002  
11:35 Hrs

On the way out to the airport Dan Murray asked Willow if she had found anything else out in the couple of hours since they spoke last.  Willow shook her head, "Until I get there and check some stuff out personally, I've done about all I can.  What's the story on the current victim?"

Dan pulled a notebook out, "She's a single mother of a newborn, named Wyatt.  She owns a nightclub called the P3; I think it's a reference to herself and her sisters, well one full and one half.  Her name is Piper, her full sister is named Phoebe, and the half is named Paige Mathews.  They had a fourth sister, but she died two years ago."

"How?"  Buffy asked.

"Some kind of accident, the cause of death is listed as blunt force trauma."

"Has their names come up on any of the Wicca Forums?"  Buffy asked.

Willow shrugged, "I've never come across them."

"Could this not be an ascension then?"  Dan asked hopefully.

Willow shook her head, "He's doing a ritual, I can't see him following it as exactly as he seems to be, and grabbing someone he can't use."

"But if you have never heard of her?" Dan asked.

"That doesn't mean much.  According to O'Connell there are about a dozen wizards and witches around Sunnydale that I never got a whiff of either.  The pattern of victims seems to indicate that the Witchfinder is trying to ascend as a Maginus Demon.  All of the sacrifices must be from the same town or city.  The first six victims don't really matter as long as they have some magical capabilities, it's the last victim that sets the distance that magically inclined people are effected."

"So, if it was that kind of demon, it means that Piper Halliwell must be a very strong witch," Dan mused.  "But if that was the case, then shouldn't you have heard of her?"

"If she was a very powerful witch then maybe," Willow replied, "She could have kept a low profile.  On the other hand, if the killer may be purposely sacrificing low power witches to lull us into a false sense of security, so when nothing happens this week we think the guy blew it, when he has a couple of powerful witches lined up to be his eighth and ninth victims to pump up the level of the demon.  Witches he can sacrifice anywhere up or down the San Andreas Fault."

"And we are bringing him one of the most powerful witches in the world, aren't we?"

Buffy and Willow both nodded at him.

Orange County Correctional Institute for Women.  
Los Angeles CA  
8Nov2002  
11:42 hrs

Dr. Clarice Golden was nervous.  She had done thousands of interviews over her career, but only rarely had she interviewed people on the other side of the law.  She had gotten a surprising amount of information on Faith.  Somehow her fingerprints had not been entered into the national fingerprint database, but they had been in the prison's database so Dan Murray had managed to get them. She had found Faith in the Database for the Center of Missing and Exploited Children.  She had managed to track down Faith's caseworker and had a lengthy conversation with her.  She had anticipated that Faith had been an abused child, but reading between the lines she suspected that Faith might have had a tougher time than she had originally thought.  Which meant that her trust issues would be even bigger than she had anticipated.  Despite what Andrea had requested, she might have to reveal why she was here, just to get the girl to open up.

The door to the room buzzed open and a beefy prison guard with sergeant's stripes led Faith in.  She was actually smaller than Clarice anticipated; she suspected that might be intentional with whoever had created the Slayer in the first place.  A smaller target would be more enticing to a predator.  Faith was wearing blue jeans with a jeans jacket.  Her hands were being held at her waist because of the prisoner transfer belt and she shuffled do to the leg shackles.

Faith for her part looked the woman waiting for her over.  She didn't get any demon/undead vibes off of the woman and her eyes looked almost sympathetic.  It was kind of hard to maintain the anger that she felt at this seemingly harmless lady.  Not that Faith intended to take this woman at face value.  Both Wolfram and Heart and the Watchers Council would be perfectly willing to employ someone who looked like your grandma who would be  willing to dig out your liver with a rusty spoon.

"Thank you Sergeant," the lady said, "Before you leave could you remove the restraints and I will call you when we are done."

"Oh, Doc, I don't think it would be such a good idea to leave you alone with Lehane here without restraints," Brannigan began.

"But I do," Clarice said.  "I'll be perfectly alright."

Clearly not happy Brannigan took off the belt and leg shackles, "That red button on the table is a panic button.  She tries anything you hit that Doc," he said.  He gave Faith a look to behave, then left the room.

"He's right you know," Faith said from her end of the table.  "I'm really not happy with you right now."

Clarice was taken aback, "May I ask why?"

"How did you find out my last name?"

Clarice berated herself, she should have realized that Faith would not have found memories of that name, "I found it on the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children's database."

"My mother reported me missing?"  Faith asked in a sarcastic voice.

Clarice noticed the shadow of hope in her eyes so it hurt when she had to say, "No, your social worker did."

Faith winced and nodded.  "You still took a hell of chance having Brannigan take off the restraints," she said.

"Not really, if you had wanted to hurt me, those shackles really wouldn't have slowed you down much, would they?"

Faith looked at her again.  If she knew she was a Slayer then she came from one of two places, considering how the last time she worked with Wolfram and Hart had worked out she couldn't see them coming to her again, but she couldn't see the Council playing this kind of game either.  "If you're from Wolfram and Hart, I'm not bored enough to take a job from you, and if you are from the Watcher's Council, after you tried to kill me last time, if you think I'm just going to happily follow you out of prison you're smoking something."

"I'd never work for Wolfram and Hart.  I've never come into contact with them, but the stories I've gotten from some of my colleges have left me no doubt what kind of lawyers they are.  As far as the Watcher's Council goes, someone blew up their headquarters in London a couple of weeks ago."

Faith blinked, "No shit?  I owe someone a favor I guess, so if you aren't from them who are you with?"

"I'm contracted with the United States Government, specifically the Treasury Department."

"What do you want with me?"  Faith couldn't figure out why the Treasury Department would be interested in her, unless she'd picked up a big inheritance she didn't know about.

"Right now, I would just like to talk.  Find out about you," Clarice said. 

"And after that?"

"We'll see where the conversation goes."

Faith considered for about two seconds.  At least talking to Clarice wasn't sitting in her cell, "Okay, what do you want to know?" 

Sunnydale International Airport  
Outside of Sunnydale, CA  
8Nov2002  
11:58 hrs

The SUV pulled into a hanger where a VC-20 sat.  Willow saw that the crewman that was waiting at the bottom of the stairs was the same one from her flight to Washington.  She gave him a little wave, which he returned.  The pilot was doing his walk around when he happened to notice Buffy lifting the Troll Hammer out of the Explorer.  His eyebrows almost disappeared into his hair as he watched the rear springs of the SUV lift as Buffy pulled a large hammer out of the back.

He walked over and said, "Pardon me Miss, could you put that object over on the scale?"

Buffy shrugged and walked over to a cargo scale and laid the hammer on it.  The Air Force Colonel grunted as he watched the needle of the scale go up to over 400 pounds.  Dying to ask how this girl could lift it, never mind carry it around like it weighed a couple of pounds, he decided he didn't really want to know.  Turning to Dan Murray he said, "Mr. Director, I didn't factor that into our take off weight, we are going to be slightly delayed as I we remove some fuel.  Your other team member is already onboard."

"Other team member?"  Buffy asked with some suspicion in her voice.

"Cindy Stewart," Dan explained.  "I asked to borrow her when I heard how usefully she was in finding Willow."

Buffy nodded, she probably should have thought of that herself.

Twenty minutes later the VC-20 took off and winged its way toward San Francisco, it was a shame that they hadn't gone through the passenger terminal.  Buffy probably would have spotted her dad and a well-dressed guy carrying a briefcase at the rental counter.


	6. Chapter 6

Witchfinder Chapter  5

By Joseph Black

Disclaimer:  Red Storm and Tom Clancy own Rainbow and Characters.  Joss Whedon owns Buffy and Characters.  Anyone you don't recognize belongs to me.  I make no profit of the following except to have a little fun.

Spoilers: Buffy to present.  Rainbow to Bear and the Dragon.

Authors note 1:  This is a continuation of the story started in 'Rainbow Over Sunnydale'.  It would be helpful to read that fic first.

Authors note 2: I can't seem to get Fanfic to except my special formatting.  So anytime you see this ' anything inside is in a foreign language.  And if you see this it's some ones thoughts.

Authors note 3: 

Thanks to all that reviewed.  Constructive criticisms always welcomed.  Flames cheerfully ignored.

Fic Starts Here:

Dan Murray unbuckled his seatbelt as the VC-20 leveled off at it's cruising altitude.  Buffy, he saw ,was engrossed in a book, glancing at the cover he was surprised to see it was The Killer Angels by Michael Sharra.  He'd read the book in college when it first came out.  He didn't think a book about the Battle of Gettysburg would have interested the Slayer.  Buffy must have felt his eyes on her because she glanced over at him.  Seeing the look on his face she said, "It's not my usual read, but General Diggs suggested I read it as it shows different command styles."

"What do you think of it?" Dan asked, seeing she was about two-thirds through it.

Buffy shrugged, "I know who won the battle from history, but considering how screwed up the northern guys seem to be, I'm wondering how they are going to do it."

Dan smiled and glanced over at Willow.  She had pulled her laptop out and was busily typing away.  "Sorry Dan, this isn't about your case," she said as she typed.

"Anything I, or the FBI can help with?"

"Not unless you can interpret a Slayer Dream," Willow replied.

Turning to Buffy he asked, "We have some psychologist/profilers on staff that are practically mind readers, maybe they can help."

"Wrong Slayer," Buffy replied.  "And interpreting a Slayer Dream is a little different than normal dream interpretation.  There is usually something cryptic to work out."

"What's cryptic about this one?"

Willow replied, "A remark at the end of it.  She was caught up in a tornado and when it passed she saw a page of calendar that pegged the date.  A couple of locals came up out of a storm shadow and went off looking for someone named 'Two'.  They found him, a young looking guy with white hair who claimed to have seen the devil dancing in the tornado."

Dan frowned, "Any famous tornadoes on that date?"

"Oh yeah," Willow quipped.  She turned the screen toward Murray.  Reading he saw that Willow was opened to an article about the Tri-State Tornado.  Dan quickly read the story, it seems that this tornado killed more people than any other in history.  It was also unusual due to how long it was on the ground.  Seeing that there were several other tornadoes on that date he asked, "Are you assuming that the main tornado is the one that Faith saw?"

Willow nodded, "I'm taking a risk doing it, but given how unusual this storm was I think it's a safe bet."

"You aren't ignoring the others are you?"  Dan asked.

Willow shook her head, "Just concentrating on this one first."

Dan looked at the map and noticed that the track of the tornado was straight as an arrow for about seventy-five percent of its length, it then dog-legged to the northeast and began going straight as an arrow again until it had blown itself out. "Can you extend the path of the tornado out?"  Dan asked Willow.

Willow nodded and closed out her current screen and opened another, a couple of seconds of key tapping and the path began expanding.  It crossed Indiana and into Ohio until it crossed into Lake Erie, right over Cleveland, Ohio.  "There's a Hellmouth there, right?"

Willow nodded.

"I think you're right; that's the storm you have to work."    

Sunnydale Social Service Office  
515 Front Str.  
Sunnydale, CA  
8Nov2002  
1220 Hrs

Hank Summers held the door for his lawyer, Tom Lawson.  Walking up to the receptionist he said, "I'm Hank Summers.  I'm the father of Dawn Summers, I'd like to talk to her case worker please."

The receptionist nodded, "Just a minute please." She punched a number into her phone and said, "Mr. Hagen?  Dawn Summers' father is down here."  She nodded and looking at Hank, said, "Ted Hagen, who is covering your daughters case, will be down momentarily."

She wasn't kidding; she had barely finished speaking when a middle-aged man with thinning hair and horn rimmed glasses, wearing a brown suit hurried down the stairs.  "Mr. Summers, I'm Ted Hagen, I'm the supervisor of this office and I've been handling your daughter's case for about a year."

Hank took the offered hand and gave it a short shake.  Turning to Tom Lawson he said, "This is my lawyer, Tom Lawson.  I'd like to discuss Dawns status with you if I may."

Hagen smiled, "Of course, would you follow me to my office please?"

Hagen's office was at the top of the stairs, a glass enclosed area that looked out over the various cubicles that made up the office.  "Hold my calls Jill," Hagen said to his secretary as they walked past.  He offered Hank and Tom a seat in the pair of chairs that were in front of his desk.  "So what can I do for you?"

"I received notice from DYS that they were increasing what I owed for child support for Dawn," Hank began.

Hagen frowned, "I don't remember requesting that the state office make any changes to the support levels.  Can I see the notice?"

Tom nodded and opening his brief case pulled a letter out of the file folder and handed it to the civil servant.  Tom took the paper and started to read.  "This is unusual, the order came straight from the state office in LA.  They don't usually act proactively like this, they wait for requests to come in from the local offices."

"Well however they normally do it, my company got a letter that they were going to attach my pay check if I didn't get it straightened out.  When I came to Sunnydale to get my daughter Buffy's signature, agreeing with the changes, I found her house filled with strange men."

"Doing?" Ted asked.

Hank shrugged, "I'm not really sure, they had a bunch of computers set up on her dinning room table and they seemed to be working with them.  I just know they looked dangerous to me.  When I talked to Buffy she told me this wild story which is causing me to have real concerns about leaving Dawn in her custody."

Tom sat back in his chair, "Do you think your daughter is involved in anything illegal?"

Hank shook his head, "No, at least I don't think so.  What concerns me though is when she was 15 she started acting strangely So we had her checked out psychologically, she checked out clean, but I really think her doctors either missed something, or Buffy hid it from them.  I'm really worried that she has gotten her sister to believe this wild tale so I want to get her out of that house as quickly as possible.

"I know I've been absentee for the last five years, but I want to start to make up for that now."

Ted Hagen leaned forward on his desk, "Mr. Summers, I have a confession to make.  I inherited your daughter's case when the previous social work had a breakdown. I haven't been allowed to hire a replacement and our offices workload has increased by 8 percent in the last year.  I know it's not an excuse, but since your daughter seemed to be doing all right in school and hadn't been  admitted to the hospital, or shown up as school with an unusual number of bruises I've kept a hands off policy.  It seems I made a mistake."  Turning to the Tom Lawson he asked, "Have you gotten an order for Mr. Summers to take custody of Dawn?"

Tom shook his head, "I felt it would be better if we had more evidence before we took it that far.  What my client would like is for Dawn to be removed from Buffy Summers' custody until her suitability as Dawn's guardian can be established."

"I think we can do that, but, we should probably stop by the police station and pick up a patrol car. These things can get messy."

Wolfram and Hart LA Branch Office  
1127 Spring Street  
Los Angeles, CA  
8Nov2002  
12:55 Hrs.

Lillah Morgan sat behind her desk and scowled at the single file that sat there.  Linwood Murrow had assigned her to find out who was sniffing around the Deeper Well, resting-place of the Old Ones, and what they were up to.  The next day he had notified her that Lady Lara Croft, tomb raider extraordinaire, was also making inquiries, so he thought it would be a good idea to keep a close eye on her too. 

His idea for keeping a close eye on the tomb raider was to invite her to team up on the investigation.  Lilah had protested, she was quite capable of handling this kind of an investigation herself, and considering she was not planning on personally coming within a thousand miles of the Deeper Well, or Lady Croft, she saw no reason to even talk to the woman.   Linwood had other ideas though. 

Considering Croft's rep he thought Lilah should not be distracted during her dealings with her, so he had ordered her to divest herself of her current cases. She had protested of course, but Linwood had been adamant. The real problem that Lilah had was how transparent he was being.  She knew he wanted to get rid of her; she was the only real threat in the office right now to him.  But like his dealing with Angel, he didn't have the balls to go after her directly, rather he wanted someone else to do the dirty work for him, and his current patsy seemed to be Lady Croft.

Lilah smiled to herself, the one thing he hadn't taken into account, unlike the firm's usual dealing with Croft, this time they weren't on opposite sides. Instead they were both after the same thing, stopping some idiot from waking up the Old Ones.  With no reason to be adversarial, Lilah was willing to go with the flow, almost. 

The one file on her desk rankled. She really didn't want it, and it wasn't like anything was likely to happen with it, not for twenty to life anyway.  It was the fact that Linwood insisted on her giving this one up that really showed what his intentions were.

"Ms. Morgan?" Her receptionists voice came over the speaker.  "Mr. Wa is here for his one o'clock appointment."

Hitting the button Lilah said, "Send him in."

Lilah stood to greet her visitor; she was a tall brunette woman.  Thin, but with a powerful presence, dressed in a stylish gray business suit.  Her appointment on the other hand was on the short side, not dumpy, but give him a year or two and he'd be there.

"George," she said with a welcoming smile.

"Ms. Morgan.  I want to thank you for this opportunity," he said, with mock sincerity.

Waving him to the seat in front of her desk she sat and pushed the file over toward the other lawyer.  "I really can't take credit for giving you this. I feel, and I told Mr. Murrow, that I thought you are currently too inexperienced to handle this case."

George Wa sat back in surprise, he hadn't expected her to be so blatant in her criticism, "He obviously felt otherwise," he replied.  "After all, how demanding can it be to keep track of someone in prison?"

Lilah smiled a cold smile, "I'm going to give you some advice; the best thing you can do with that file is take it back to your desk and stick it in a bottom drawer and forget about it.  Nothing good has ever come to anyone who has had anything to do with that girl. If you do decide that something needs to be done then do yourself a favor and run it by a supervisor or manager before you actually do anything."

George Wa stood up and said, "I'll take your advice under consideration."   Nodding to Lilah he turned and left the office, as he was exiting the door he looked at the file and cooed, "The Dark Slayer."

Lilah smiled from behind her desk, making a bet with herself how long it would take for George Wa to get himself killed.

 Sunnydale Police Station  
256 Main St.  
Sunnydale CA  
8 Nov 2002  
14:10 Hrs

Hank had been surprised how quickly Ted Hagen had been able to set up a hearing with a judge.  Then, how quickly the judge had signed an order removing Dawn from Buffy's custody and placing her in a foster home.  Ted had then headed for the Sunnydale Police Station to pick up some back up.  Hank hand impressed upon him how dangerous the men in Buffy's house had looked so Ted had decided that he'd run it past the head of the juvenile division and see if she had information on the address and see if she thought a couple of control officers would be enough.

Detective Lia Celitti was at her desk when Ted Hagen knocked at her door.  "Ted!" she said happily to the social worker, "What's up?"

"Got a case where I have to remove a minor from her guardian, and it looks like the guardian might be into something so I'd like to take along some back up when I serve the order."

Lia Shrugged, "No problem, let me grab my coat and I'll be right with you."

"A little more back up," Ted replied.

Lia frowned, "How much are we talking about?"

"I'm not sure," turning to Hank he said, "This is Hank Summers.  His daughter Dawn is who we are going to be taking custody of.  He was there last week and he saw that his elder daughter, Buffy, was hosting a large number of dangerous looking men.  It might be a good idea to show up in force."

Hank frowned; did he notice the Sunnydale cop go slightly pale at the mention of his daughter's name?

Lia nodded, "I see. Okay, how about you and Mr. Summers and Mr. ..?"

"Lawson. I'm Hank Summers' attorney." 

"… Lawson, wait in one of our conference rooms while I go and get Lt. O'Connell and we can talk."

Detective Celitti lead them to a room with a mid-size table and a couple of coffee pots and told them to help themselves.  Ted took the time to fill Hank and Tom in on the foster family they would place Dawn with, they were outside of the city proper, but was still part of the Sunnydale School System, so Dawn would not have to switch schools. Hank had just finished agreeing that it sounded like it was a good family when a balding man with a moustache stuck his head into the door and said, "Ted?  Can I see you for a sec?"

Ted looked surprised but said, "Sure."  Then remembering his manners he said, "Hank Summers, Tom Lawson, this is Stew Donaldson, Sunnydale's Chief of Police."  The three men exchanged greetings.

Thirty seconds after Ted left the door opened again and two men came in.  Hank went pale as he recognized one of the men as the hard-eyed individual from Buffy's house. The other one looked familiar too, he just couldn't place him.  "Oh, God," Hank thought to himself, "The whole town is in on what ever Buffy is doing."

The hard-eyed man sat down across from Hank and looked him over.  "Mr. Summers, my name is John Clark."  He reached into his jacket and pulled out a billfold and opening it he showed it to Hank and Tom.  Reading it Hank saw it was a military ID card made out to a 'Brigadier General John P. Clark' and he was stationed at a base somewhere in England.  Turning to the man who came in with him he said, "And this is Special Agent Frayne Murphy of the FBI." Who also produced his wallet with an FBI badge and ID card in it. Hank realized that he had seen this individual on the TV a couple of weeks ago talking about a shoot out with a gang of terrorists.  "I have a favor to ask of you.  Do you have a cell phone?"

Hank blinked, he couldn't see the relevance, "Yes, and just so you know, people know where Tom and I have gone."

John smiled, "That's nice.  I'd like you to make a phone call for me."

"Why?"

"Because I'm asking you politely," Clark replied.

Hank gulped, he could see that if this man wanted to, he could probably ask very impolitely.  So he took out his phone and asked, "What number?" 

"Call information and get the number for the White House Switchboard, then call it, and identify yourself."

Hank looked at him with a confused look on his face.  "If I just gave you the number when it picked up on the other end you'd think it was a joke.  This is easier," John explained.

Figuring to humor the guy, and not seeing he had much of a choice Hank did as he was told and called.  He expected to get a busy signal so was somewhat surprised when it picked up on the first ring.  "White House, how may I direct your call?"  The female voice on the other end asked.

"This is Hank Summers," Hank said.

"One moment please," the voice said.  Hank's head was starting to swim with the unreality of it all.

He was on hold all of ten seconds when the phone picked up again, "Hello? Hank Summers?" a familiar voice said on the other end.

"Yes?" Hank replied.

"This is Jack Ryan."

Okay, Hank now knew why the voice sounded familiar.

"Hello?"  Jack asked.

"I'm sorry Mr. President," Hank stammered, "This is somewhat disconcerting."

Tom Lawson's head came around at what Hank said, "Hank, could you put that on speaker phone?"

"Do you mind if I put this on speaker?  My lawyer would like to hear this conversation," Hank asked.

"Not at all," Jack Ryan replied, "It would probably make things easier."

Hank hit the speaker button on his cell, and then set it in the middle of the table.  Why was he talking to the President of the Untied States?

"Mr. President?  This is Tom Lawson, I am representing Hank Summers in the case involving his daughter Dawn, is this conversation going to be about that case?"

"Nice to meet you Mr. Lawson," Jack replied.  "Yes, that is what I'd like to talk to Mr. Summers about."

"I'm confused Mr. President, exactly what interest do you have in this?"

"Buffy Summers is currently performing some valuable services for the United States Government, and I like to spare her whatever headaches I can."

"Then you are not intervening at her bequest?"

"She isn't even aware that we are talking at the moment."

"Then I'm not even sure we should continue this conversation, and I advise my client to terminate this call," Tom finished and looked to Hank.

Hank was thinking, Tom was giving him good advise, on the other hand, he couldn't figure out anything that Buffy could be doing for the US that warranted Jack Ryan taking a personal interest in what was going on.

 He was sure that this was who he was talking to.  He could remember when he had heard of the Ebola outbreak back in the States. It was the closest he had come to contacting the girls in the five years since he moved to Spain.  Sheila had managed to 'convince' him that he didn't need to.  He had kept track of reported cases and he had told himself that if any popped up in Sunnydale he would have called. But none had, so he didn't. 

He could remember sitting on the couch and watching Ryan give an address to the nation toward the end of the crisis and he had clapped his hands. He was still trying to figure out why Ryan had done this when the picture had changed to show a house. He had felt a tingle in his stomach, as he knew something was about to happen. The door on the house had opened and someone tried to get out, he had never seen who it was as the house had exploded in the next instant and the video feed had gone down an instant after that. Hank had realized he had just watched this man calmly give the order to execute someone, actually a bunch of some ones as Hank was sure the actual target had not been alone.  The rest of the speech were Ryan had explained exactly what the Ryan Doctrine was largely forgotten in the horror of what he had just witnessed.  And now this same man was on the other end of the phone talking about his daughter.

Hank decided that he needed to know why this man was interested in his kids so he said, "I'd like to know exactly what services my daughter can be performing for you Mr. President.  If they are that valuable, maybe it would be a benefit to remove responsibility for Dawn from her." 


	7. Chapter 7

Witchfinder Chapter 6

By Joseph Black

Disclaimer: Red Storm and Tom Clancy own Rainbow and Characters. Joss Whedon owns Buffy and Characters. Anyone you don't recognize belongs to me. I make no profit of the following except to have a little fun.

Spoilers: Buffy to present. Rainbow to Bear and the Dragon.

Authors note 1: This is a continuation of the story started in 'Rainbow Over Sunnydale'. It would be helpful to read that fic first.

Authors note 2: I can't seem to get Fanfic to except my special formatting. So anytime you see this '{*} anything inside is in a foreign language. And if you see this [*] it's some ones thoughts.

Authors note 3:

Thanks to all that reviewed. Constructive criticisms always welcomed. Flames cheerfully ignored.

Fic Starts Here:

Approaching San Francisco International Airport  
San Francisco, CA  
8Nov2002  
1210 hrs

Cindy Stewart sat in the back of the plane and stared out the window. She truly didn't know how to do this. She was a grade school teacher, not some kind of hero. She'd spent most of her life trying to ignore the gift she had inherited from her mother's side of the family. She'd used it now and then, when lives were on the line. But, except for when she saved Jenny Hudson she had always been careful to remain behind the scenes. Now she was in the middle of a possible Ascension and the fate of the world, or at least a million or so people were resting on her shoulders. Okay, partially resting on her shoulders. She wasn't sure she was up to this. She knew that part of the problem was that she would be working with Willow Rosenberg. She had learned a lot about the woman from the brief time she had hosted the Echo of Willow from the day that Tara MaClay had been killed. Her question to Buffy had been sincere, but not wholly fair to Willow. What really worried her though was the amount of power that Willow could channel.

Cindy unconsciously hugged herself. She had often wondered what it would feel like to be able to touch the magic, manipulate it; bend it to her will. She had read enough, and had her gran warn her of the seduction that it had never really gone past wondering. When she had been Willow she had felt the magic, and she knew that if it had been her, she never would have been able to give it up, even if it had meant the end of the world. The control that the young redhead had demonstrated left her in awe. She wondered though, if something similar happened, if Willow could give it up again.

Sunnydale Police Station  
256 Main St.  
Sunnydale, CA  
8Nov2002  
14:30 hrs

"If we are going to have this conversation Mr. Summers, I think we need to switch to a secure phone. Are you okay with that?"

"Sure," Hank said in a slightly dazed voice.

General Clark took out his phone and pushed a button. He held it up to his ear and said, "Mr. President? Okay, Jack?"

Hank stared; his daughter was hanging out with someone who had the President on speed dial?

Clark hit a button and placed the phone on the table, "Can everyone hear me?" Jack Ryan's voice came out of the phone.

Every one indicated they could.

"All right Mr. Summers. Right now your daughter is on her way to San Francisco to try and stop a disaster before it occurs."

"How? She's a twenty-one year old college student!"

"Actually Mr. Summers, she's a college dropout. She did that when your ex-wife was sick. She couldn't re-enroll because she was taking care of your younger daughter. She went to work at a fast-food place to try and make ends meet and then took a second job as a high school councilor, both to make a little extra cash, and to be close to Dawn. In her spare time she was saving the world."

"You can't tell me you actually believe that wild tale she told me, do you?" Hank all but shouted.

"I believe it Mr. Summers, because I have seen your daughter in action," POTUS replied.

"She saved your life, too?" Hank asked in a sarcastic voice.

"No, I've seen her on tape. I'd be willing to bet that whatever tale she told you she understated."

Hank was dazed; there is no way that could be the truth. But, then why would Jack Ryan be lying to him about it? It didn't make any sense! "Then, I have to restate, wouldn't it be better to take back guardianship of Dawn so Buffy could concentrate on her other activities?"

"Ordinarily I think I would agree, however, there are some special circumstances with Dawn, that I think her remaining with Buffy is the best option."

"You can't believe that Dawn is only a couple of years old!" Hank exclaimed. Of everything that Buffy had told him that was the most ridiculous. "Mr. President, I assure you that Dawn is sixteen. I can tell you stories that only a parent can know, and they all come from before Dawn ever set foot in Sunnydale. If Joyce was still alive she could assure you too."

"Look, Hank, I know this is a lot to take in. Believe me when I found out about this kind of stuff I was wandering around in a daze that whole day. The sad fact of the matter is you have been caught up in the gears of powers beyond your control. If you want, I could probably arrange things so you would not be held responsible for Dawn's child support payments. I'll pick up them up and you can wash your hands of the whole thing."

Hank Summers stared at the phone, not believing what he had just heard, Jack Ryan had just offered to buy his youngest daughter! "You go F yourself!" He all but screamed at the phone. "You may be President of the United States, but you can't try and buy my kids! Dawn is my daughter, I don't know what kind of nutso head-game you are trying to pull, but nobody is going to keep me away from my daughters, and even the President of the F'en United States can't order someone to stay away from their family!"

There was silence for a moment from the phone, then, "Maybe not, Mr. Summers. But I can have you arrested for interfering in a federal investigation, which I will have Agent Murphy do if you interfere with Buffy at the present time. If after she is done in San Francisco you wish to continue with your lawsuit be advise that I will provide legal council for her and Dawn."

"You can't do that as President," Hank snarled, not sure if he could or couldn't.

"As President, no I can't. As Jack Ryan, believe me, I can," he replied in a hard voice. "Unless you have anything to add, I think this conversation is over. Good day Mr. Summers, think about all of what I've said."

Hank was speechless, Tom replied for him, "Thank you for making your position clear, Mr. President. Good day."

Clark retrieved his phone and stood, "I just want you to know, I've worked with your daughter for a couple of weeks. Unlike the President, I have seen her in action. Believe what she's told you. After all of this is over, if you want to mend fences, go for it. But for now, get out of Sunnydale and crawl back under whatever rock you were hiding under. You become a distraction and I will have Frayne throw you in a cell until it's all over." With the FBI agent in tow he turned and left.

Hank sat at the table in shock. That couldn't have just happened. It was impossible.

"Hank?" Tom finally asked. "What do you want to do?"

Hank smiled at his friend, "You still with me?"

"Call it a Don Quixote complex that some lawyers have. You're my client, you pay me and I'll take on anyone you want. But I got to be honest with you. The talent he can bring to bear against us will leave me in the dust."

"What because he's President?"

"That and he's got tons of cash to buy talent. Though to be honest most agencies would do the work pro-bono just so he'd owe them one. If you want to take him on legally, you're best bet would be someone like Wolfram and Hart, but if you go to them, don't ever come back to me."

Hank shook his head, "I've heard some rumors about them at work, just shop talk, but I don't think I'd ever be that desperate."

"Good to hear," Tom replied, "But back to my original question, what now?"

"Know any reputable realtors in Sunnydale?"

Tom smiled and flipped open his cellphone, hitting a button he said, "Mabel? Could you find me the name of a good realtor in Sunnydale? He waited thirty seconds then writing on his notepad he said," Thanks."

He tore the sheet off the pad and handed it to Hank, "Looks like I'm not the only Don Quixote in the building."

The Oval Office  
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.  
Washington, DC.  
8Nov2002  
17:35 hrs 

"Lord Jack, that was a hell of a risk," Robby Jackson chided.

"I have to agree, Mr. President. That could have blown up all over the place," Arnie Van Damm chimed in. "Even now, Hank Summers could go with this to the press. We could prove we are telling the truth easy enough, but it would mean exposing both the supernatural and Buffy to the world. I doubt she thank you for putting her in the spotlight like that."

Jack shrugged, "It's a risk," he agreed. "But, I needed to know if his sudden interest in Dawn was based on some parental feeling or if he was figuring that with the increase he was being hit with it might be cheaper to just take custody back."

"Well I guess he answered that one," Robby remarked.

"Yeah, I think he passed," Ryan agreed. "I wish his sense of timing was better though."

San Francisco International Airport  
San Francisco, CA  
8Nov2002  
12:39 hrs

Alec Donnelly, the Special Agent in Charge of the San Francisco branch of the FBI fumed as he watched the VC-20 that was approaching where he, Special Agent Pat O'Day, and Detective Darryl Morris, the Liaison from the San Francisco PD stood. He knew that the investigation hadn't been going well. They had been going around circles almost since the beginning. It would look like they had found a break in the case, but it just led to dead end after dead end.

This was not something that Donnelly was used to. He had graduated fourth in his class from Boston College. Then first in his class from Quantico. He started in Organized Crime and had helped bring down three major mob figures, then moved into counter intelligence where he had broken four spy rings, one Chinese, two Russian, one military, the other commercial, finally a Taiwanese commercial. He then had transferred to Behavior Sciences and had been lead investigator on three successful serial killer hunts. He couldn't figure out why his experience from tracking down the others was not helping him here. He knew that the break they needed would come soon, at the rate the killer was acting he had to make a mistake, then they'd have him. The one thing he didn't need was a bunch of newcomers butting into his investigation.

As soon as the plane stopped the door popped open and ladder was let down from the aircraft. Dan Murray was the first off the plane and Alec could only stare at the three young ladies that followed him out. THIS? This was the help Murray was bringing, _Please, God, don't let them be psychics,_ Donnelly prayed silently.

Knob Hill Theater  
120 Geary St.  
San Francisco. CA  
8Nov2002  
12:46 hrs

The mage, whose use-name was Raven, sat in the first row of the old theater, trying to ignore the musty odor of the long disused building. He was a powerfully built individual, black, with close-cropped hair and a goatee. He was dressed in black: black duster, black chinos, and black ankle length boots. He had a pair of black Raybans on his face, hiding his eyes, but the frown that his mouth was forming gave clear indication that he was not a happy wizard.

Part of his unhappiness was coming down the hall toward him, if the steady increase in volume of the very off-key tenor was any indication anyway.

"Hush little baby don't you cry, Daddy's got you the seventh witch, and when that witch is dead and gone, daddies got two more for you." As the last of the verse rang out a man carrying an infant wrapped in blankets came onto the stage. He was tall, six-one or so, and thin. It was hard to judge his age as he was missing most of his hair and the skin of his face showed evidence of massive scaring down the left side. Glancing down at his wizard Anthony Simmeron asked, "Why the long face Raven? Surely you can't still be upset about my choice of sacrifice?"

Raven only grunted in reply.

Simmeron shrugged, "Speaking of which, I take it all is secure?"

Raven nodded this time, "The spell is still working, just like the others, and the sedatives are still keeping her out."

Turning to the infant Simmeron gurgled, "See, my darling baby boy. Everything is going just like I said it would."

"We broke pattern," Raven replied in an aggrieved voice.

Sighing, Simmeron turned to the other man and said, "Yes we did. And we will again when you take Madam Gravlow, the AFW representative for Central California next week, and when we come back after either Phoebe or Paige Halliwell for the final sacrifice. Right now the AFW has to be asking itself if an Ascension is truly taking place, or if it just looks like one. Trust me, they have no idea that the Charmed Ones are in San Francisco. Thanks to your spell the police are being lead in circles, and the AFW will be convinced they have nothing to worry about. We purposely targeted low power witches for our first sacrifices, for the remaining sacrifices the witches need to be as high powered as possible, if junior here," Simmeron opened the blanket, reveling that the babies chest was covered by intricate tattoos, pulled the baby up to his mouth and blew a raspberry onto it's stomach which produced a squeal of delight from it, "is going to be of decent size."

Raven shook his head, they'd had this argument when Piper Halliwell was chosen as the seventh victim, and he'd kept arguing right up to the time it came to kidnap her, and Simmeron had not relented. Raven internally shrugged, as long Simmeron kept paying, he was the boss, and if it started to look like he'd screwed up, Raven didn't owe him a thing.

Highway 101  
Outside of San Francisco, CA  
8Nov2002  
12:50 hrs.

After a round of introductions, during which the head of the local office had seemingly not been impressed by the Sunnydaleiens, Dan had taken him and Cindy in one car and headed to the San Francisco FBI office. He told Pat to take Buffy and Willow and introduce them to the Halliwells.

Pat introduced them to Detective Darryl Morris. He was currently the liaison between the Bureau and the San Francisco Police Department. Darryl greeted the two newcomers. Personally he didn't see what help they could be, but anything that could help them find Piper before she ended up like the other six he was willing to give a shot.

Pat explained that Darryl was friends with the victims, so he had been taken off of the active investigation. He still wanted to do what he could so he volunteered to be the liaison.

Buffy for her part was half tempted to ask if Piper Hallowell was a witch, but figured they would find out soon enough, without taking the chance of alienating the detective. They pulled up in front of an impressive old house. Willow hissed as she started up the steps, after taking two steps Buffy felt it too. There was something powerful about this house.

Oblivious to the aura surrounding the Hallowell home, Darryl and Pat just jogged up the stairs. While Darryl was out of earshot Buffy asked Willow, "What do you make of it?"

Willow just shook her head, "I don't know. I don't think it's a Hellmouth, it feels to clean. But it is some kind of powerful mystic convergence.

Darryl was waiting to ring the doorbell, so Buffy and Willow hurried up the steps. As soon as Darryl had pushed the button a female voice from the back of the house called, "Come on in'

"It's me," Darryl called as he pushed the door open.

"We're in the kitchen," the same voice said.

Darryl led them through the house, Buffy and Willow checking out the decorations, nothing screamed 'witch'. As they entered the kitchen they saw two women, both on the short side, one with long brown hair, the other a red head with shoulder length hair. The red head was looking for something in a cupboard; the brunette was cooking something on the stove.

Darryl began, "Paige, Phoebe, you know Pat O'Day. This is Buffy Summers and Willow Rosenberg. The head of the FBI thinks they may be able help us find Piper."

Paige, the red head, turned around and opened her mouth to greet the newcomers. Phoebe took one look at Willow and cried out, "Paige! Get Wyatt out of here!" Then she launched herself in a flying kick, right at Willow's head.

The White House  
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.  
Washington, DC  
8Nov2002  
1610 hrs.

Jack sighed, there was no use putting this off any longer. He dialed his Secretary of Defense and said, "About that Connecticut thing? Do it."


	8. Chapter 8

Witchfinder Chapter 7

By Joseph Black

Disclaimer: Red Storm and Tom Clancy own Rainbow and Characters. Joss Whedon owns Buffy and Characters. Anyone you don't recognize belongs to me. I make no profit of the following except to have a little fun.

Spoilers: Buffy to present. Rainbow to Bear and the Dragon.

Authors note 1: This is a continuation of the story started in 'Rainbow Over Sunnydale'. It would be helpful to read that fic first.

Authors note 2: I can't seem to get Fanfic to except my special formatting. So anytime you see this '{*} anything inside is in a foreign language. And if you see this [*] it's some ones thoughts.

Authors note 3:

Thanks to all that reviewed. Constructive criticisms always welcomed. Flames cheerfully ignored.

Fic Starts Here:

7571 Prescott St.  
San Francisco, CA  
8Nov2002  
12:32 Hours

As Phoebe Halliwell flew through the air a flash of white light came from behind the counter and a man in plaid shirt appeared. His cry of "Paige wait!" broke Phoebe's concentration. Of course the steel claw that grabbed her ankle and slammed her into the ground didn't help at all either. As she tried to force air back into her lungs so she could speak she found herself staring into a pair of angry hazel eyes that came with the arm the hand that had her around the ankle was attached to.

"Leo, why?" Phoebe croaked after a couple of seconds. "Don't you know who that is?" She said nodding her head at Willow.

For the most part everyone else in the kitchen was speechless. Darryl, because he'd never seen anything like that outside of a movie, Pat, because he'd not really taken Anya seriously when she said that Crudge wouldn't be a problem for Buffy. Willow had her hands to her mouth, but was actually staring at the figure that had appeared in a shower of white light. She had read about White-Lighters in a couple of Giles's books, but when none had ever appeared to her she had thought they were a myth, obviously not.

"Do you know who has you by the ankle?" Leo asked calmly in return. When she shook her head said, "Phoebe Halliwell, Charmed one, meet Buffy Summers, the Vampire Slayer."

"I thought she'd be taller," was Phoebe's only response. Buffy rolled her eyes and let go of the ankle.

Willow went pale, "Is Piper Halliwell a Charmed One too?" She asked.

"What's a Charmed One?" Buffy and Pat asked at the same time.

Leo went to reply but Willow beat him to it, "The Charmed Ones are a legendary set of witches. They are tasked to defend the world against warlocks and demons. Only I thought they were a myth."

"Who's he then?" Buffy asked, pointing at Wyatt.

"I'm their White Lighter. I'm their connection with Elders."

"Elders?"

"Probably their version of the Powers That Be," Willow guessed.

Buffy looked hard at Wyatt, seemingly measuring his rib cage.

"You'll find they aren't as big a set of jerks as you normally deal with," Leo assured her. Then he went on, "I also want to thank you for coming to help."

Orange County Correctional Institute for Women  
Los Angels, CA  
8Nov2002  
12:35 hrs

Srgt. James Brannigan reached into his car and pulled out a cell phone and a cigar. He lit the latter and hit speed dial on the former, ruminating on how much it sucked that the Health Nazis had taken over the state legislature and banned smoking on prison grounds. Not only did it make the inmates cranky, it made the guards cranky too when they had to go off site to smoke on their lunch hours. Still, it was useful for some things. "This is Brannigan. That inmate you asked me to keep tabs on had a visitor today. Her name is Dr. Claries Golden. She's from DC and she's staying at the Hilton downtown." He listened for a second and then answered, "Don't have a clue what she is doing here. She did know Lehene's last name though," He listened again, "Lehene, NLN's actual last name." He listened a final time and said, "Yeah, I know what I owe you, and I pay my debts. I'll keep you updated on her. When she is released, we're square."

He flipped the phone closed and went back to enjoying his cigar.

Wilken's Memorial Park  
Sunnydale, CA  
8Nov2002  
1250 hrs 

Sergeant Cory Unger nudged Sergeant Buford Summers and nodded at a figure set up on a small hill with a transit. "What about him?" Summers asked.

"That transit is pointed toward our base," The other Rainbow trooper replied.

Buford checked the compass that was built into his watch and realized Unger was right. Glancing at the direction that the device was pointed he noticed there was a couple high rise buildings in direct line though.

"He may just be taking measurements for those buildings though. Still, it might not be a bad idea to keep an eye on him."

Secretary of Defense's Office  
Pentagon  
Washington DC.  
8Nov2002  
15:55 hrs 

Former Marine Captain Paul Koonan walked up to receptionist's desk and said, "I'm Paul Koonan, I have an appointment with Secretary Brentano."

The pretty blonde looked up and said, "Yes Mr. Koonan. If you can take a seat, the Secretary will be with you soon." Paul Koonan winced inwardly. It still hurt that he was no longer 'Marine Captain Koonan.'. He didn't regret his resignation, a small part of him still thought of himself as a victim of the politically correct desire to make a more touchy-feely Marine Corps. He knew, intellectually anyway, that he had been right to resign. What he had done while leading his Force Recon Training Unit was against regulations, had put his men into unnecessary danger, and had led to two of them being seriously injured, and more almost being killed. That still didn't stop his gut from telling him that what he had done would help them be better able to survive what they would run into out in the real world. Koonan went over and took a seat and while he waited he tried to figure out exactly why the Secretary of Defense might be interested in a disgraced former Marine Officer. Less than five minutes later the receptionist escorted through the doors to Secretary Brentano's office.

The Secretary himself got up to great him, "Mr. Koonan, thank you for coming on such short notice."

"When the Secretary of Defense asks someone for a personal meeting, especially when he sends round trip tickets, its kind of hard to say no," Koonan replied as he was escorted to a seat.

"You'd be surprised," Brentano replied.

Since he quit the Marine Corps, Koonan refused to suger coat it by saying he 'retired', he had been doing the odd security work. With his skill set there wasn't a whole lot of opportunity out there. He'd been approached by several private security firms, but most of them were mercenary companies with a polite fiction giving them the veneer of respectability and whatever else he was, he was no mercenary. He was doing comfortably with the odd security job but not as well as he'd like to, also none of them gave him half the satisfaction he received in the Corps, so when the Secretary of Defense had contacted him about a possible job he was more than interested.

Brentano for his part studied the other man as he sat down. Koonan was black, and above average height. He was dressed in a decent suit and had good shoes. Brentano saw that he was still taking care of himself, his hair was still Marine regulation, and it was obvious that he was keeping himself in top of the line physical shape. Brentano had been surprised when Koonan's name had come up as a possible replacement for Sergeant Major Eddie Price for Rainbow. Koonan had resigned about six months before Jack had been catapulted into the Presidency. He'd studied the case, and decided if he had been SecDef then he probably would not have accepted the man's resignation and pounded him. On his own he had decided that Force Recon training wasn't tough enough so he had added his own twists. Some of the stuff Brentano didn't really care about, and could see were they should probably be added to the course, but others, like when he smudged a map and moved his trainees to the bare minimum of safety on a live fire bombing run, which got two people hurt when one panicked and ran toward the target, only to avoid being killed when his training sergeant ran after and tackled him. Unfortunately they were close enough that both of them were seriously injured. The incident that sealed his fate was when he had switched radios during his teams final exam exercise, replacing theirs with a non working one that he nearly got his whole class killed. The exam was for his people to attack a simulated terrorist stronghold, free a couple of hostages, then exit the area before a real artillery barrage blanketed the area. Two things went wrong. First, one of the trainees had spotted him switching the radios, and unknown to him had switched them back. Second, spotting what he thought was another hostage in a damaged building the team radioman had gone into rescue him. It turned out to just be a rag, but in trying to leave the building he had brushed up against a beam that was just barely keeping the roof up, it had come down trapped him, and destroyed his radio. Koonan had seen this and realizing that the artillery barrage was about to start had tried to radio in a cease fire command when he had discovered his own radio was not transmitting. Rushing to the artillery command post he got there in time to stop the battery from firing more than a couple of spotting rounds and saved his peoples lives. He'd admitted what he had done, and resigned his commission. Brentano could respect him for that, but what he had done said some bad things about him.

Still the man had an impressive record so Brentano had contacted the Navy JAG and talked to both him and the investigators on the case. They all had been impressed by Koonan as a marine, and even as a unit leader, he did care for his men, and had felt what he was doing was better preparing them for what a Force Recon Marine did, both to keep themselves alive, but to better be able to complete the mission, and keep their teammates alive. Add in that the Initiative had looked at him several times and found that he was too independent for them to be comfortable recruiting Brentano decided to give him a shot. "I have a job that I think you would be well qualified for. I have to warn you though, the position is a senior noncom position, not an officers. There is a possibility for you to be recommissioned at the end of the mission, but I'm not going to guarantee that."

Koonan nodded, "Can you tell me what the mission is?"

"Not until you sign non-discloser papers. I have to warn you though, once you sign those papers, your world view is going to change forever." Brentano explained.

Koonan sat back and thought, "Will signing the ND documents and having the mission explained commit me to it?"

Brentano shook his head, "No, but you won't look at a dark alley the same way ever again."

Koonan looked at the SECDEF, what the hell did he mean by that? But, Koonan would take any chance to get back in uniform, even as a buck sergeant, so, "Where do I sign Mr. Brentano."

7571 Prescott St.  
San Francisco, CA  
8Nov2002  
13:09 Hours

After a brief getting to know you session, Pat brought topic back to the Witchfinder, "It would have helped if you folks had been up front with us from the start, knowing we were up against a real magic user would have saved us a whole lot of time."

"Piper Halliwell is my wife Special Agent O'Day, if I had realized that you were in the know then believe me I would have."

"Don't be too hard on Leo Agent O'Day," Phoebe said. "A couple of years ago we had a premonition on what would happen if the Government ever found out about us. It wasn't pretty. In fact I can't say we're completely happy you're here. Really don't want to end up burning at the stake."

"Been there, not a lot of fun," Buffy added.

"Well you'd have to get a different bunch in office for that to happen" O'Day replied, ignoring Buffy. "Still have you found anything in your research that might help us?"

Phoebe shook her head as she tried to rub some of the soreness out of her shoulders from when she had been slammed into the ground. "We've been checking ever since the Witchfinder came to our attention, which was after the third victim, but so far we've found zip. For awhile we thought it might be ascension, but we can't figure out why anyone would want to raise as an Arcrotic Demon. Sure they are powerful, but they are also mindless. So we figured that unless someone wanted to go to extreme lengths to live out a Godzilla fantasy, it didn't make any sense."

"What about a Maginus demon?" Willow asked.

Paige came over to her sister and with a soft glow coming from her hands she started rubbing her neck and shoulders, "A what?"

"Maginus demon, it also fits the current pattern of sacrifices," Willow explained.

Both Phoebe and Paige paled as they looked at each other. Phoebe said, "We stopped looking after we found the Arcrotic, and never thought to look for another."

Pat shook his head; that kind of assumption had popped up all over this case. It had bit them in the butt every time too.

"Can you check your research again and see what you can come up with?" Pat asked.

The Halliwells nodded and Willow asked, "Need some help? I'm usually pretty good with research."

Phoebe looked over at Leo, "Can we trust her?"

"I trust her," Buffy replied.

Leo glanced sideways at the Slayer, "Yes, you can."

Phoebe had a thoughtful look on her face, "You know, when I went to ask Cole about this being an ascension, he never once mentioned that there was another demon that used the same kind of ritual. Maybe I should go and talk to him again. Paige, you and Willow and Buffy see if you can find anything new."

"Paige and Willow, "Buffy said, "I'm coming with you. I stink at research, I'm much more action girl."

Phoebe shrugged, "Just let me grab my purse and we're gone."

FBI Office  
450 Golden Gate Ave.  
San Francisco CA.  
8 Nov 2002  
13:20 Hrs.

Alec Donnelly was a professional; he showed none of the seething anger that boiled within him. The director had brought psychics onto the case. If he was so desperate why not relieve him? Why humiliate him in the process? Leading Director Murray and his assistant into his office he asked if either of them wanted anything to drink.

"Look Alec, I know you're pissed, I know I would be if the director pulled something like this on me. But trust me, this isn't a normal case."

"Not normal enough to bring three psychics in?" He asked as he moved around his desk.

"Um, I'm the only psychic here," Cindy afford as she moved to take a chair.

"What are the other two then?" Donnelly asked as he sat down.

"Willow Rosenberg is a real witch. We're hoping she will be able to locate the current victim."

"Bubble, Bubble type of witch?" The head of the San Francisco FBI Office asked, disbelievingly.

Dan Murray ruefully shook his head, "Yeah that kind. I've seen her in action Alec. The President brought her in to brief us on magic a couple of weeks ago. She did a couple of spells, it was impressive, and spooky."

"You mean that redhead could turn me into a frog?"

"Not likely sir," Cindy said. "Willow has a frog phobia."

Donnelly gave her look that he thought she was crazy.

Cindy just shrugged; she found it hard to believe herself.

Dan held out his hand to Cindy. She handed him her portfolio that she kept her press clipping in. "Here Alec, check this out. Consider it Cindy's resume."

Donnelly took the folder and began going over the press clippings. Finishing the story about the kidnapped little girl and it's aftermath he looked up at Cindy and said, "If I was in charge of this case I would have arrested you to."

Cindy shook her head, "No, you would have ignored me until it was too late, then you would have arrested me and used me as a scapegoat. The police officers that I contacted knew about the supernatural and were willing to take me at my word. I was investigated afterward because of a family feud. Even if it wasn't I could understand why police might want to. Which, is why I don't usually personally contact police with this kind of information, it just leads to questions. In this case I hade no choice. If I used my normal means, the girl would have died."

"Look Mr. Director, it's not that I'm calling you a liar, but this is a lot to take in," Donnelly said.

Murray could respect Alec for that statement, but unless they brought him on board fully, he could sabotage the whole investigation. Dan really didn't want to do it, but he might have to relieve him, they didn't really have the time to play around in this investigation.

"Agent Donnelly, do you have anything in your office that might have a strong emotional attachment to it that isn't yours?" Cindy asked.

Donnelly looked at the psychic and considered her for a second. He then reached down and opened a bottom drawer and pulled out a stuffed bunny. It was well worn, an off white color with several repairs on it clearly visible. Surprisingly it still had both of it's googly eyes, though she supposed those could have been repaired too.

"May see it?" Cindy asked as she held out her hand. Donnelly slowly handed it to her and she gently took it from him. She studied it for a couple of minutes, and then closed her eyes. When she opened them again she said to the SAC, "Your daughter loves you very much, she left this here so you'd have to bring her back down to your office to recover it so she could see you."

Donnelly frowned, that hit it dead on. His wife Joan had called and told him that Sarah, his three year old had left the toy when she had stopped down to pick up their safe deposit key. Sarah, who was missing her daddy because of the hours he was working on this case, had insisted on heading right back down to daddy to reclaim it. In fact they were out right now and would be stopping by later in the day to do just that. Still he'd seen fake psychics before, they were consummate grifters. "Any good profiler could have come up with that," He replied, pointing at the numerous photos that lined the walls of his family.

"She's somewhere around water, she's currently feed some ducks. I'm sorry, I'm not familiar enough with San Francisco to identify exactly where they are, but it's off that way somewhere," Cindy told him pointing off in a southwesterly direction.

Donnelly frowned; he knew that Joan often took Sarah to a nearby park to feed the 'duckies'. He took out his phone and hit speed dial one. "Hey honey," He said when the person on the other side picked up. What are you and Sarah up to? Can I speak to her?" A pause then, "Hey honey watch you doing?" The reply of 'Daddy!' could be heard through the phone. Donnelly listened for a minute or so then said, "Well you have fun feeding the duckies, and I'll se you later.

Turning to Cindy he asked, "How?"

"I can't tell you Agent Donnelly. Just that I've been able to do for as long as I can remember. My mother can't, but my grandmother was even better than I am at it."

Turning to Murray he said, "All right, I think I believe you, at least enough to give it a shot."

Dan was relieved; the man in front of him was probably the best pure investigator that he had, there was no way he could replace him. "That's good, because what we think we are dealing with is bad, real bad."

Donnelly got the idea that Dan was not talking about just a serial killer, "Define 'real bad." He requested.

"The best case scenario is effectively a nuke going off somewhere in San Fran," Dan told the other agent.

"Worse Case?"

"The destruction of the entire West Coast and then some."

Donnelly paled a bit, "How?"

Dan then took about ten minutes to explain the whole situation to him. At the end of it Donnelly was wishing he'd put his retirement papers in rather than taking the San Francisco office. To take his mind off of the implications of what had just been explained to him he asked, "If Cindy here is a psychic, and Ms. Rosenberg is a witch. What is Buffy Summers?"

"Dangerous," Dan replied with a smile.


	9. Chapter 9

Witchfinder Chapter 8

By Joseph Black

Disclaimer: Red Storm and Tom Clancy own Rainbow and Characters. Joss Whedon owns Buffy and Characters. Anyone you don't recognize belongs to me. I make no profit of the following except to have a little fun.

Spoilers: Buffy to present. Rainbow to Bear and the Dragon.

Authors note 1: This is a continuation of the story started in 'Rainbow Over Sunnydale'. It would be helpful to read that fic first.

Authors note 2: I can't seem to get Fanfic to except my special formatting. So anytime you see this '{*} anything inside is in a foreign language. And if you see this [*] it's some ones thoughts.

Authors note 3: A change to the Charmed timeline. Centennial Charmed did not go down quite how it did in the original series. The Charmed Ones were able to reset the normal timeline with out killing Cole.

Thanks to all that reviewed. Constructive criticisms always welcomed. Flames cheerfully ignored.

Fic Starts Here:

1006 12th Street  
Sunnydale CA  
8Nov2002  
13:33 hrs

"There he is again," Cory Unger said, surreptitiously pointing at the guy with the transit.

Summers nodded and checked his compass, "And it's kinda pointed toward our base again."

Unger pulled a small digital camera out of the case on his belt. While the camera looked like something you could pick up at Walgreen for thirty or forty bucks it was actually a lot more capable than that. Cory pretended to be taking a picture of something behind the guy doing surveys, but manipulated the picture so he was dead center and well framed, then took five shots of him to make sure he got a good one. Turning back to Buford he said, "Lets head over to Police HQ and see if O'Connell or someone might be able to tell us who this is."

Apt 1407  
425 First St.  
San Francisco, CA  
8Nov2002  
13:49hrs

Cole Turner checked the pep hole in his door. Bill, the guard on duty at the door had called him and told him that Phoebe Halliwell and guest wanted to come up. He didn't really think that anyone else was out there. As the Source, if someone was gunning for him, he doubted they would have bothered coming in the front door. Of course, the wards he had in place around his condo meant that maybe they might try something a little more subtle. Nope, it was Phoebe. He opened the door and saw his ex-wife and a small blonde.

"Hello Phoebe, I still haven't heard anything about Piper. Who's your friend?"

"Yeah, I thought you might not have," Phoebe said, with more than a little hostility in her voice, "This? This is Buffy Summers."

Cole frowned as if he was trying to figure out where he had heard that name before? He got his answer when the small blonde forced him back into the room, then grabbing the front of his shirt picked him up and slammed him onto the floor of his condo, "_Oh, yeah, the Vampire Slayer. Oh….Joy_."

"I thought you hung out down in Sunnydale," he said to the blonde.

"When someone is pulling an ascension I commute," Buffy explained.

Phoebe knelt down next to her ex and said in an almost pleasant voice, "We were wondering what you know about Maginus demons?"

"Maginus demons? Why would I know anything about them?" Cole asked with as honest a voice as he could managed.

Buffy bounced his head off of the floor for his trouble. "Ow! That hurt!" He snarled at the Slayer.

"Good, answer her questions!" Buffy replied in an 'If you don't, I'll enjoy myself a lot more than you will' voice.

"There about twenty feet tall, wings and are mostly on fire, so what?"

"And you can ascend as one if you sacrifice seven witches at one a week!" Phoebe heatedly informed him. "How is it you forgot to mention them when I asked you about it?"

"I forgot?" Cole answered lamely.

Isn't obvious Phoebe?" Buffy asked, she'd been filled in on Cole and Phoebe's history on the way over, well Buffy figured she'd only hit the high spots, but she got the gist. Was Buffy a bad person because she was a little happy that someone had a more screwed up dating history than she did? "He was planning on waiting until the ascension started, then pop in and offer to get Piper's kid to safety, but only if you agreed to go back to him."

Phoebe glared at Cole, who shrugged his shoulders as if to say, !Evil!.

"So what do you know about whoever is trying to ascend?" Phoebe asked.

"Nothing," Cole began, and then looking at Buffy said, "Before you bounce my head again, I really don't. There is an aversion spell going. I might be able to break it but I doubt it. With it running you aren't going to be able to scrye the location of Piper. Power of Three might be able to do it, but that leaves a problem."

"Damn!" Phoebe said. Looking at Buffy, she said "Your turn."

"Her turn?" Cole asked confused.

"What can you tell me about what The First is doing down in Sunnydale?

"And I'll answer your questions because?" He inquired.

Buffy smiled sweetly at him, "Because I asked nicely?" Then she bounced his head off of the floor again.

"Why should I know anything about what that piker is after?"

Buffy refrained from bouncing his head again. According to Phoebe he was a major demon, but she didn't know how hard his head was.

"We talked on the way over. It has to be one of your major competitors. Phoebe says you're smart, there is no way you wouldn't keep track of what he is up too. Especially, if it's doing something as big as trying to end the Slayer Line, you'd at least have a guess!"

"Isn't it obvious? He wants to open the Hellmouth," Cole replied in a duh voice.

"Every one wants to open the Hellmouth!" Buffy snarled, leaning in. "None of them tried kill of the Slayers first to do it!"

"Yeah and look what that's got them," Cole replied, apparently cool in the face of an irked Slayer. "Unlike the others, the first realizes that it has one chance at this. If it manages it then it's top dog, if not, then it's stuck being a whiner for millennia. It wants to maximize its chances, so, the Slayers have to go."

"Why now?"

Cole actually looked at Buffy with pity, "You mean you haven't figured it out?"

"Figured what out?"

"You."

Buffy frowned, "What do you mean me?"

"You're why. Willow bringing you back the second time. The balanced was nudged when you came back the first time, but when you sacrificed yourself for your sister everything went back to normal. But when Willow decided to yank you out of heaven all bets were off. The balance is so screwed up right now things that are normally untouchable are in play."

Buffy let go of his lapels and sat back on her knees. Cole tried to ignore exactly where she was sitting as he watched her. "Are you trying to tell me that if I go and commit suicide then the rest of the potentials are safe and The First is shut down?"

"Weren't you just listening?" Cole said in an annoyed tone. "I told you the balance is totaly out of whack."

"What does that mean?" Buffy said reaching for his lapels again.

Cole batted her hand away, that was getting tiresome, "It means that no, killing yourself won't bring things back into balance." Searching for an example he began, "It's like you have a teeter-totter, as long as the two people are about the same size it goes up and down and everyone is happy. When your friend Willow brought you back it did two things. First, it was like a five hundred pound person landed on one side of the teeter-totter, the other thing was the pivot point was broke so the board of the thing is now free floating. If you kill yourself it will be like the five hundred pound person rolled off of his side. You know what happens then?"

Buffy leaned back again and nodded, first gulping, then frowning, great, not only did I get drafted into the game, but I can't quit. "What happens if I get killed?"

"Naturally? Or something kills you?" Cole asked, a slightly hopeful expression on his face, "The balance might still fail, but, it also might snap back into place. But it couldn't be that you let something kill you, which would count as suicide."

Buffy looked at Phoebe, "Anything else?"

Phoebe shook her head and stood up. Buffy followed suit keeping an eye on The Source. "You hear anything, or figure out a way around this aversion spell, you call us."

Just lying on the Floor Cole looked up at the two champions and said, "Oh, yeah, sure, you bet."

The women turned and left, Phoebe pulled the door closed behind her.

Once he was sure they were gone Cole picked himself up off the floor and opened the closet just inside the door to check himself out in the mirror. He'd just finished up straighten his tie when he became aware of a presence. He didn't even turn around, looking at the figure that was now standing in his living room, a figure that looked remarkably like Buffy Summers, "So coach, how'd I do?"

"Don't quit your day job. But I think she bought it. I need her for the end game and figure that one of her friends will eventually tweek to the fact what's happening could be related to Buffy being brought back. I doubt she'll off herself now," the faux Buffy replied in a condescending tone. "Still, don't go running off anywhere, she might need more convincing

Cole turned around and stared at the other being, he might do some favors, but he was no one's lackey to be ordered about, "Explain to me exactly why I'm helping you again?" Cole asked in a low dangerous voice.

"Because you know that me and my game are the only chance you and your ex have of surviving what's coming, let alone ever getting back together," the faux Buffy said right before she winked out.

Cole Turner scowled.

1627 Revello Drive  
Sunnydale CA  
8Nov2002  
14:03

Major Peter Covington looked out of the upper story window into Buffy's back yard. He was not really happy with what he was watching. Kennedy, who Buffy had chosen as their drill instructor was running the kids, he couldn't think of the potentials any other way, through some katas. One of the potentials, Pete thought her name was Chloe, somehow got out of time with everyone else, so when Kennedy called a halt to the exercise she had the wrong fist in the air. Kennedy was all over her, in her face screaming at her. Pete winced, both because he had experienced the same thing, and because, having experience training recruits himself he knew that it wasn't quite the point where you used this kind of histrionics with a recruit.

Turning to his companion he said, "You were right Kenshin, they are going to need some help, or at least some suggestions."

"Hi," Kenshin replied, "Perhaps when they go to Wilkens Park this afternoon? You and Major Chavez could talk to Kennedy."

"You caught what was going on, you sure you don't want to do it? She might look at Ding and I as trying to hog in on her territory."

"I would, but I would like to talk to the young one who is not doing well. I think I can help her."

Pete nodded, "She does seem to be kind of uncoordinated for a potential slayer."

"Partly I believe it is her age, but I think she might be better suited to some other aspect of Slaying. My family has had experience with Slayers; I think I can help her."

"Go for it," Pete told his colleague.

FBI Office  
450 Golden Gate Ave.  
San Francisco CA.  
8 Nov 2002  
14:05 Hrs

Buffy was ushered into the office of the Special Agent in Charge of San Francisco. Dan had caught her as she and Phoebe had been getting back in Phoebe's car. He had wanted to see if she could stop by and meet Alec Donnelly. Since the office was only a couple of blocks from Cole's condo Phoebe had dropped her off and headed home.

Entering the office Buffy found Dan and Cindy going over some case notes while the head FBI guy from the area was talking on the phone.

Dan glanced over and asked, "Find out anything?"

"Yeah, Cole Turner is a fink. Nothing much on the Witchfinder though. Beyond that the bad guy has an aversion spell running. It's going to make solving this one a pain."

Alex heard about the spell, so he quickly finished up his phone call then said, "Thanks for coming down Ms. Summers." He looked the petite blonde over, having a little difficult hanging the label 'dangerous' on her. "You mentioned something about a spell?"

"Hi, just call me Buffy, and yeah, according to the demon I just questioned the Witchfinder is using an aversion spell to throw keep everyone off the track. I'm not sure how they work, you'll have to talk to Willow about that."

Dan looked over at his magic expert and asked, "Cindy?"

Buffy winced, forgot about her.

"An Aversion spell is usually used to hide something. They work by redirecting a person or person's attention off of what ever they are hiding. Properly used, their subtlety can make them very difficult to detect, which is usually the means that is used to begin dispelling them."

"Given the number of people that are involved in this investigation I find it difficult to believe that a spell of that nature could work."

Cindy shrugged, "Usually it is cast on the object being hidden, so the number of people affected isn't an issue."

Alex wanted to dig in, it's ridiculous, a spell that could affect so many people. I mean a spell period. But then the investigator reared his head, the most promising leads had always come from someone who was new to the investigation, usually though the leads had not developed until the next victim had been taken, and then the newcomer had seemed as stymied as the rest of them.

"You might have something, "Donnelly said. "I need to look over some of the case notes to confirm. If you're right, we may have had a significant clue that we discarded."

Cindy nodded, "I can help, since I wasn't involved at the time of Piper Halliwell's abduction, I might not be affected. Just in case I am though, we should keep notes."

Donnelly nodded, "Buffy, can I ask your plans are?"

"Nothing right now, tonight though I'm going to make a sweep through San Fran's demon bars and put the word out. Maybe someone out there isn't affected by this spell and can tell us were this guy is. If nothing else maybe threatening to take the demon community apart looking for him will put enough pressure for someone else to do something about him."

Alex Donnelly wanted to ask, "San Francisco has a demon community?" But Piper Halliwell was running out of time. Once this was over though, he was going to put aside an evening and have a long talk with someone in the know.

Wilkens Park Memorial Park  
Sunnydale CA  
8Nov2002

15:12

Kennedy looked out over the lake that was the center piece of the park and sigh. She was having a blast. She had a senior position in the group, her girlfriend was one of the most powerful witches around and she got to call people 'maggot'. Life didn't get much better.

She suddenly stiffened as two people slid up next to her. Starting to drop into a defensive position she relaxed when she realized it was Ding and Pete. "I thought you guys weren't supposed to have anything to do with us," as she glanced around to see if any of the other potentials were in a position to see them. Only Molly seemed to still be in the area, more because none of the potentials were supposed to be by themselves, than any friendly feeling toward the other potential slayer.

"I know," Ding replied, "But we were across the street and caught your DI impersonation today. It generated a bet. I think you learned what you were doing by watching 'The DI', Ding thinks it was by watching 'Full Metal Jacket.'"

Kennedy bristled, "I'm teaching them the same way my trainer taught me!"

Ding shook his head, "Then he was an idiot."

"He taught me well enough, I managed to get away from a bunch of Bringers didn't I? I stayed alive until Giles picked me up. I know what I'm doing!"

"No Kennedy you do not. If the process you are using training the other potentials is how you were trained, then you must have been one stiff necked trainee. I imagine the first thing he wanted to do was break you of that tendency. Training a group of people means that you have to take the group dynamic into account. The way you are going about it at best is going to be a disaster. I don't even want to think about the worst case."

"What do you mean a disaster?" Kennedy replied, in a hostile voice.

"The girl you have been riding, Chloe I think her name is? If you keep going the way you are going, she is going to break. If you are lucky she'll just quit and run. If not, she's going to kill herself. As running would amount to the same thing, she'll probably just decide to end it. If that happens you have a potential mutiny on your hands. With Buffy out of town, she would be coming back cold into that. Your whole happy little group could shatter."

Kennedy bristled, "We are having this conversation because you are trying to defend that screw up?"

Pete shook his head, "No Kennedy, not defend, but, rather trying to show you there is more to being a DI than yelling at your troops when they screw up. Drill instructor school is a tough school, and for good reason. Teaching recruits what to do is more than showing them, getting them to do the exercise, and yelling at them when they screw up. Sure, you yell at them, but, if all you ever do is yell at them, they will never learn what they are missing. You, need to get with Chloe, and find out why she is having the problems she is. It may be she just can't do it, or it may be she has some kind of block. If it is a block, then you need to see if you can break it. Yelling at her and calling her maggot may break through, probably though it will just cement it in."

"Point blank Kennedy, Buffy doesn't have enough troops for you to break one in training," Ding finished.


	10. Chapter 10

Witchfinder Chapter

Disclaimer: Red Storm and Tom Clancy own Rainbow and Characters. Joss Whedon owns Buffy and Characters. Anyone you don't recognize belongs to me. I make no profit of the following except to have a little fun.

Spoilers: Buffy to present. Rainbow to Bear and the Dragon.

Authors note 1: This is a continuation of the story started in 'Rainbow Over Sunnydale'. It would be helpful to read that fic first.

Authors note 2: I can't seem to get Fanfic to except my special formatting. So anytime you see this '{*} anything inside is in a foreign language. And if you see this [*] it's some ones thoughts.

Authors note 3:

Thanks to all that reviewed. Constructive criticisms always welcomed. Flames cheerfully ignored.

Fic Starts Here:

Chloe Richards sat on a park bench by herself. She knew it was stupid, but the girl she had been partnered with hadn't said anything when Chloe had wandered off, instead she elected to stay with her friends. They didn't completely wander away; she could still hear them on the other side of the rhododendron bushes. In a way she would be happy if a bringer would jump out of the bushes and cut her throat, at least then she wouldn't be a screw up anymore, or put someone life in danger.

"Pardon me, should you be off by yourself?" A quiet voice asked with a slight foreign accent.

Quickly looking up Chloe found herself looking at a Japanese man of average height, and above average fitness dressed in jeans and a black polo shirt. Chloe realized this must be one of the military people that were in town guarding the Hellmouth.

"We're not supposed to have anything to do with you guys," Chloe told him as she got up from the bench.

"Please, wait," the Japanese man said. "I've watched your training while on guard across the street; I think you need some help."

Chloe shrugged and rolled her eyes, "I need more than help. I suck. Kennedy keeps telling me I'm going to get someone killed if I don't stop screwing up. But I don't know how! All the other potentials, they pick right up on it, to me it doesn't make any sense."

"Yes, I've seen that, but Kennedy does not show you how to do it. She demonstrates, and then begins yelling. That is not how you train a trooper who is having problems absorbing a lesson. Also, it might be that your gift is pointed in another direction, no two slayers are identical. Each has unique powers."

"How would you know that?" Chloe asked, even more suspicious.

"At the turn of the century, the Slayer was my great aunt on my mother's side. My family has made it our duty to learn as much about the Slayer as we can. We had been approached by the Council to join. But studying how they treated, correction, mistreated the Slayer, led us to turn them down."

Chloe clearly didn't quite believe him, but sticking her head around the rhododendron bushes she said, "Stacy? I've run into one of the military guys, I'll be okay if you want to go somewhere else."

Kenshin heard, "Great!" Then, with out any further hesitation a number of footsteps hurrying away. Chloe came back and asked, "Okay, what do you think my problem is?"

Kenshin sat on the bench and motioned for Chloe to do the same. Shaking her head she moved to a rock on the other side of the clearing and sat on it.

Kenshin smiled, "Good, you are not too trusting. But you have courage."

Chloe gulped, "I'm not brave. I'm scared to death all the time. Every day I expect something to jump me and kill me."

"Yet you go on. Brave people are not people who do not know fear; rather they are people who do what they need to do even though they are afraid."

Chloe frowned, "You sound like a fortune cookie."

Kenshin frowned right back, "That is Chinese, not Japanese."

"You still do."

"Very well, I think the problem is that Kennedy is concentrating on the hard styles. I would like to see how easily you pick up a softer style. Let us begin."

Down by the lake, Kennedy asked, "What are you suggesting, taking over training the potentials? Giles has already shot that down." 

Pete shook his head. He and Ding had decided that Pete would do most of the talking, working on the theory that a slayer would be more prone to go along with an English accent. Okay, it wasn't much of a theory, but it was all they had. "That would be ideal, but you are correct, Giles would not agree. So instead what I would like to suggest is that you strike up a friendship with Molly here," He said gesturing at the other potential, who now approached. "She has breakfast with her Uncle Alistair every morning. We'll rotate through the various instructors that we have in the unit and you'll have breakfast with them and they'll critique your performance from the day before and give you suggestions on what you are doing that day. Hopefully we'll be able to pass enough along that you'll be able to hand Buffy an instrument she'll be able to use to defeat The First."

Kennedy stared at the other potential. She liked the other potential well enough, she was cute, she had to admit, but she was also depressingly straight. Which lead to another problem, "If we do this, we have to tell Willow."

Pete cocked his head, "Why?"

"What would your wife do if you went out every morning to have breakfast with a pretty girl?"

Pete blushed; he and Ding had forgotten that. "Do you think Willow would go along with it?"

"I don't know, I'll have to ask."

"She's in San Francisco though."

Kennedy looked at him, "You know there is this new fangled thing called a telephone."

"All right, when you get back home give her a call. Then, just show up with Molly tomorrow for breakfast."

Kennedy agreed. She checked her watch and turning to Molly said, "Go round 'em up Molly. I'll take this side of the park, you take the other."

Kennedy spotted a couple of potentials down the path and jogged off to gather them. Molly headed in the other direction with the two Rainbow Officers trailing along behind. Turning she said, "I don't need chaperones."

"We aren't chaperoning you, Molly, for your sake. Do you know what your uncle would do to us if something happened to you?"

Molly shook her head, she was staying in the States when this was all over, with the Rainbow Troopers all but adopting her, no boy would come within a mile of her. She had no intentions dieing and old maid.

The smile left her face though, when she saw three potentials sitting on a bench next to the lake. Picking up some speed she jogged over to them, "Where's Chloe?"

Janice, Chloe's buddy gulped, "Over in those bushes?"

"By herself?" Molly asked. "Does she want to get killed?"

Janice defended herself as Pete and Ding caught up with Molly, "She's with one of those guys," she said pointing at Pete.

"You are supposed to stay together!" Molly insisted.

"She said I could leave!" Janice retorted.

"She's fourteen! You're almost 17! You're supposed to be looking out for her!" Molly finished by taking off at a run toward the bushes.

Pete took off after her while Ding remained behind, looking at them in disapproval.

Molly reached the bushes and ducked into the opening, fearing she was going to find Chloe spread all over the ground. Instead someone grabbed her arm, flipped her, and then put a submission hold on her. Molly glanced up to see how much trouble she was in. She found herself looking into Chloe's eyes; it was hard to tell who was more surprised.

"You see," Kenshin said to the young potential, "You show great potential in the softer styles."

Andrea Price's Office  
Old Treasury Building  
Washington, DC  
8Nov2002  
18:20 Hrs

Andrea Price rose as her two guests entered her office. "Mr. Angleton, please have a seat. I want to thank you for agreeing to meet with me."

The lead figure, a trim, mature man dressed in a grey Armani suit. He had a little grey at the temples and a goatee that was still pure black, held out his hand to Andrea and said, "There is no thanks necessary Agent Price. After Jonathan O'Connell contacted us about you wanting some magical help, we thought it would be best to come in person and see exactly what kind of help you wanted."

Turning, he introduced his companion, "This is Jojo Easterling, the position he holds in our society is comparable to what your Daniel Murray holds in your government." Easterling was also in good shape, his suit, though nice, was nowhere near the quality of Angleton's.

Andrea's professionalism prevented her from smiling at the man's name, as the individual in question in a lot of ways reminded her of her husband, "Director Easterling?" She asked.

"Just call me Jo, Agent Price. I understand my given name often puts mundanes in the mind of a performing chimp, but I assure you, in our community it is a name held in much esteem."

"Jo, I apologize, it's not very professional to react to people of other cultures by their name."

"After dealing outside the Wizarding Community on many occasions I assure you I don't hold it against people any more."

Andrea nodded, moving on she asked, "I'm glad you agreed to talk to me, I have to admit, I was somewhat surprised that you did, after not making any attempt to contact us before."

Angleton nodded, "Our Forefathers originally came to the New World to escape an increasingly rules bound society that the European Wizards were creating. They felt that a person should be free to express and use their magic as they saw fit, and not be constrained from interacting with the non-magical world. They were some who came here seeking power; however, they usually found that those who used magic that were already established here took a dim view of the upstarts. They found that the Aztec and Mayan Gods were not quite as dead as was thought, and they most certainly did not play well with others.

"The ones that stayed east largely just wanted to live and let live. There were some ugly incidents, and not in Salem, thank you, but in the end we created a society that didn't have the restrictions that were found in Europe, but also that did not expose us to the common person either. The system worked, so we largely kept it."

Andrea frowned, "You mean you are totally separate from Mainstream America?"

"Not at all, we are American citizens and largely live side by side with non-wizarding people who are none the wiser."

"You mean like Bewitched?"

Easterling answered smiling, "Mostly. We aren't in anyway near as powerful as Samantha Stevens was portrayed, but there has been more than one case were a magical person has married a mundane. In some cases their families have supported the marriage, and some of the in-laws makes Endora look like pussy cat."

"Then why weren't your people incorporated into the Initiative?"

Angleton picked up the narrative again, "Because though we consider ourselves to be Americans, it doesn't mean we want our secret getting out. We looked at who was running the Initiative and realized that a disaster in the making. We didn't think they would be able to cover resultant mess up, and we thought that them being politicians, they would be looking for a scapegoat. If we were involved, our council had no doubt at all who would get that honor. We didn't have anything to do with the first Witch Trails; we didn't want to become the guest of honor at the second.

"After President Fowler resigned, President Durling pitched to us again. We truly thought about it that time, but most of the people who had been running the Initiative at the time were still involved with the program so again, we decided not to join."

"And after Sato kamakazied?"

"General Billingsly contacted Jo and said nothing had changed. We were somewhat surprised when we were contacted by Jonathan O'Connell and told you wanted to talk."

"General Billingsly kept us out of the loop. We've only just learned of the Supernatural, and given we've already had one near miss, it was decided to get some knowledgeable people in to help us out.

"I am curious though, you said thanks, but no thanks twice. Why did you agree to talk to us this time?"

Angleton smiled, "Both of the former presidents didn't really want to get involved in the supernatural world. They never really looked at how the Initiative was set up. Fowler turned it over to Elliot to do with as she pleased. We have no proof, but we believe she had plans for that creation of Walsh's beyond building something to deal with demons and monsters. Durling really wanted the whole thing to go away. He continued the Initiative as a search and destroy force, but he maintained a benign neglect toward the organization. If the whole thing had vanished, I think he would have been a very happy man.

"President Ryan is different; he's not a politician looking for an easy out. He is a duty driven individual who will act in regards to oath he swore when he became the President of the Untied States. So, it was decided that we should work with his administration as much as possible. He is rumored to be someone who gets the best people available for a job, and that when he doesn't understand something, to ask questions and actually listens to his experts."

Andrea nodded and leaned back in her chair, "Fair enough. What I was hoping for was to have an expert look at magical defenses around the White House beyond the ward in the basement, and to pick up a couple of wizards or witches that could travel with President to provide some magical muscle."

It was Easterlings turn to frown, "You haven't had magical protection for President Ryan until now, why do you want to add it?"

Andrea smiled grimly, "Have you ever read Nietzsche?"

"Some, he is too depressing for my tastes."

"Mine too, but you're right, there is no way that the President will back off from this. As I doubt that the main players are going to be very happy with it, I think we have to go with Nietzsche when he says, "Be careful when you look into the Abyss, for it is looking into you," I'm going to need some expert help, and I think you guys might be the people to supply them."

Legettie's Italian Restaurant  
111 Main St.  
Sunnydale CA  
8Nov2002  
15:49hrs

Robin Wood turned to the other members of the Student Exchange Committee and said, "All right folks, before the coffee and deserts get served, let's vote on the caterer for the Awards Dinner. We've narrowed it down to three, based on price, selection, and reputation. They are the Angel Food Services, Rybec Catering, and Simpson's Merrymaking. Sandra?"

Doc Sanchez shrugged, they're all pretty close to each other," I think Rybec's is probably the best choice."

"Andy?" Robin asked the schools secretary.

"Works for me."

"Anyone have any objections or wants to go with another company?" Robin asked the rest of the people around the table.

When everyone shook their heads Principal Wood said, "Okay, Rybec's it is. I'll call him tomorrow and let him know. Next meeting we'll finalize the menu and then that part of the program will be taken care of."

"Any other order of business?" When everyone shook their heads he stated, "This meeting is then adjourned."

A half an hour later, after enjoying some of Leggettie's fine coffee and deserts the meeting broke up and Sandra headed for the parking lot, she'd be a little early for work, but that was fine.

"Sandra!" She heard Robin Wood call, turning she found the principal walking her way.

"Anything I can help you with Robin?" She asked when he got close enough so she wouldn't have to shout.

"I was wondering, you're off tomorrow night, right?"

Sandra nodded.

"I was wondering if you have anything planned. If you don't, I'd kind of like to take you out to dinner and a movie."

"Sure, Thomas can baby sit. So, what time do you want to pick me up?"

"Would six-thirty be too late?"

Sandra smiled, "See you then."

7571 Prescott St.  
San Francisco, CA  
8Nov2002  
15:52 Hours

"Okay, I have a list of demon bars in the city. I'll hit them and pass the word I'm in town and looking for the Witchfinder. I'll also pass on that I won't be happy if I don't get something by noon. That should shake things up enough for us to get some results," Buffy told the gathered people.

Dan and Cindy had brought Buffy back to the Halliwell's. He had wanted to meet the witches and to learn exactly what Buffy was going to do overnight. He knew that the Slayer was used to working alone, and he was honest enough to know that he didn't have enough men briefed in to cover her anyway. That still didn't mean he wanted her out there by herself. "Buffy, I think you should take some backup with you."

Buffy shook her head, "Willow is the only one who could really help, and I think she's of better use here doing research. If she can figure a way around this aversion spell, it'll make our lives a lot easier."

"What about me?" Phoebe cried indignantly. "You know, we've done okay before you showed up. This is our town; we know it better than you do."

Buffy turned to Phoebe, "I'm not trying to take over your town Phoebe. The problem is where I'm going I can get in and out with minimal fuss because I'm the Slayer. If I take an audience, then the demon's macho is going to be up and I'll have to waste all kinds of time busting up the place before they'll talk to me."

"I still want you to have some back up Buffy," Dan Murray said sternly. "I want them standing by outside with you wearing a wire so they can keep track of what is going on. So if you need help you can get it. If nothing else, we'll have a record we can go over to see if there was something you missed"

"How many?"

"Three, myself, Pat, and Darryl, we'll be outside in a van listening in. We'll be in body armor, and have assault weapons. I realize that might not do a whole lot damage wise, but we can at least serve as a distraction."

"You do what I say, when I say it, no arguments. This is my territory, I know what I'm doing," There was no give in her voice.

"Fair enough."


	11. Chapter 11

Witchfinder Chapter: 11

Disclaimer: Red Storm and Tom Clancy own Rainbow and Characters. Joss Whedon owns Buffy and Characters. Anyone you don't recognize belongs to me. I make no profit of the following except to have a little fun.

Spoilers: Buffy to present. Rainbow to Bear and the Dragon.

Authors note 1: This is a continuation of the story started in 'Rainbow Over Sunnydale'. It would be helpful to read that fic first.

Authors note 2: I can't seem to get Fanfic to except my special formatting. So anytime you see this '{*} anything inside is in a foreign language. And if you see this [*] it's some ones thoughts.

Authors note 3:

Thanks to all that reviewed. Constructive criticisms always welcomed. Flames cheerfully ignored.

Fic Starts Here:

John Clark watched as Hank Summers stormed across the street toward his front door. He really couldn't blame the guy, if someone had made what amounted to a masturbation toy patterned after one of his daughters, they wouldn't be able to ID him with dental records, maybe not even DNA.

"You know Mr. C, I can't blame the guy for being pissed," Ding remarked, "Someone put something like BB together based on Patti? I'd kill 'm, slow."

Thomas Anderson also was considering Hank Summers' reaction. He had been planning some quiet experiments with the android, but seeing the reaction of the model's father, it suddenly got a little to squicky for him.

Hank Summers slammed through his front door, he wasn't so far gone to rage to ignore making sure the door was shut and locked, but as soon as it was he was he storming up the stairs to his apartment. He would find out who had made that high tech blow up doll of his eldest daughter and when he did, he would hurt them… somehow. He threw the door of his apartment open and stepped into the kitchen and froze. Sitting there at the table was Joyce, his supposedly dead ex-wife. She was dressed in a dressing gown and drinking a cup of coffee, as she often did when he had worked late and she had waited up.

"Joyce?" He asked in a confused tone.

"Hello Hank, have fun chasing after our daughter's mechanical doppelganger?"

"They said you died," he replied in a shaky tone.

"Oh, I did, buried in Sunnydale Memorial Cemetery plot 12765, and resting mostly peacefully, that is until you showed up."

"This is impossible," Hank stammered.

"This is Sunnydale, if you are going to be sticking around, much less be any use to Buffy and Dawn you better start expecting the impossible. But then again, even if you do, I really don't see you being of much use," Joyce finished in a hard voice.

"What do you mean by that?" Hank almost snarled.

"Oo, feel the testosterone rise. Come on Hank; look at your handling of that call to the President. 'Go 'F' yourself'? The word honey is fuck, F. U. C. K... How do you expect to stand up to what's haunting this town if you can't bring yourself to say a simple swear word?"

Hank gulped, he normally didn't curse, even when he was pissed. When Ryan had tried to buy Dawn, he hadn't been thinking clearly. When he had been younger, his mom had really hated cursing, like wash your mouth out with soap for cursing, the type of soap depending on the word, so he got used to saying other things instead. So, when Ryan had made his offer 'F' just slipped out.

He opened his mouth to point he did say 'F' to the President of the United States, that had to count for something, when Joyce stood up. "Nope," she said, "I can see you are going to be a liability to Buffy, so something must be done."

As what looked like the ghost of his ex-wife stepped out from behind the table he took a step backwards, forgetting there was nothing there but steps. He went over backwards and tumbled down the steps.

Joyce Summers stood at the top of the steps looking at the crumbled heap at the bottom and smiled, _that had been easy, and more than a little fun._

Outside John was just climbing into the shotgun seat of the van when they heard a series of crashes coming from Hank Summers home. Looking across at Ding, who shrugged as he climbed back out of the van. Clark reached behind the seat and pulled out a Remington 870 shotgun and racked a shell into the breach. Ding grabbed his Marlin and worked the lever to charge the big game rifle. Both men moved toward Hank's door.

Sebastianie's

782 Oasis Ave.  
Sunnydale CA  
8Nov2002  
21:05 Hrs

Doctor Sandra Sanchez laughed as Robin held the door for her as they headed out of the restaurant. Sandra had dated several men since her husband had been killed, none more than three times. She thought Robin might be the exception. Rarely had she had as good a time as she just had. Robin was well informed, warm, and had a wicked sense of humor. Most men took off for the hills when they found out she had two kids; Robin knew before he asked her out. Thomas had not been exactly happy when he found out his mom was going out on a date with his principal, but Robin had set him at ease. During the course of the meal Robin had shared that his mother had been murdered when he was four so he even understood the hole that had been ripped in her soul when her husband had been killed. She didn't want to get her hopes up, it had been only a first date after all, but Robin Wood definitely had possibilities.

They'd just reached Robin's car when a voice said out of a dark ally, "Well what do you know, a two course meal."

Turning they found a man, dressed in jeans and a jacket had moved behind them. The fangs and brow ridges said he was a vampire. Sandra wondered what the mechanics of that change was as she reached into her purse for the bottle of holy water she now carried everywhere.

Robin moved around the car and placed himself between the vampire and his date.

The vampire sneered, "I was going to give you a head start as I chowed down on your girlfriend, but I ain't fussy about order."

"You going to talk or eat?" Robin sneered.

Sandra stared at the man's bravado.

The vampire lunged at Robin and froze just as he reached him. The vampire had just enough time to glance down before he exploded into dust. _Okay, maybe it wasn't just bravado._

Robin turned to make sure that Sandra was okay and she saw that he was causally gripping a wooden stake in his right hand.

"I think you need to talk to some people," She said, a lot more calmly than she felt.

Hyperion Hotel

1481 Hyperion Ave.

Los Angeles, CA

8 Nov 2002  
21:19 hrs

"Mr. Angel, it's not that I'm refusing to answer your questions on who I'm working for, it's that professionally I can't discuss it until I've gotten permission from my employer. All I'm asking is for to wait until morning so I can talk to them." Clarice Golden said as she followed the vampire into the lobby of the Hyperion, Gunn brought up the rear.

Angel turned to the diminutive psychologist, "First, it's just Angel. Second…" Angel was cut off by the sound of a cellphone ringing in Doctor Gloden's purse.

She dug it out and answering it she said, "Hello?"

"Doctor Golden?" Andrea Price asked in a concerned voice, "Are you all right"

"Yes, I'm fine, Agent Price, thanks to a local private detective named Angel. I was attacked in my room by a couple of vampires and he rescued me."

"Vampires attacked you in your hotel room? Did they have a particular reason, or just looking for a meal?"

Andrea was going to have to really adjust her security protocols if vampires were that brazen about feeding.

"They wanted to know why I was interested in Faith. I got the impression they worked for a firm named Wolfram and Hart. It wouldn't surprise me if they did, from what I have heard about them."

"Where are you now? I'll get a couple of agents to you and make sure you have a protection detail for the rest of your stay," Andrea said.

"I'm currently at the Hyperion Hotel, I'm not sure of the address. In fact the person who rescued me wants to talk to you," Clarice replied as she offered her phone to Angel.

Angel looked surprised, but he took the phone, "Hello?"

"Angel, this is Chief Agent Andrea Price with the Secret Service. I want to thank you for rescuing Doctor Golden."

"No problem, I was actually on my way to talk to her myself."

"Why did you want to talk to Dr. Golden?"

"I received word that Dr. Golden had interviewed Faith. I keep track of her, and help where I can. Since you called Dr. Golden when someone reported her missing, I take it you are employing her to check out Faith?"

"You may," Andrea responded. She was quickly typing into her computer to bring up the information they had on Angel. Unfortunately, when it popped up she saw that it was mostly stuff she had reported when she had gotten back from Sunnydale, and stuff she had gotten out of Willow while she had been in DC.

"Why are you interested in Faith then?" Angel asked.

"If I think she is stable, I'd like to recruit her for my detail."

"What's your detail?" Angel asked. Not seeing anything that the Secret Service did that would either be appropriate for Faith, or that they would be willing to let Faith do, like guarding the President.

"I'm the chief of the President's security detail, I'd like to add a Slayer to it, and Buffy would be largely unavailable do to her other duties."

Then again, he could be wrong.

Sunnydale General Hospital  
655 Wilkens Ave.  
Sunnydale CA  
8Nov2002  
21:25 hours

Dr. Russell Davis walked out the treatment room where they had Hank Summers. Spying the men who had brought him in he walked over that way.

"How is he Doc?" the older one asked.

"He should be fine; we think he may have a moderate concussion, and a twisted knee. We'll be taking him up to X-ray and making sure there isn't more damage. You say he went down a set of stairs, Mr. …?"

"Clark, John Clark," he replied. "And I think he went down backwards."

"He's lucky to be alive then. A fall like that could well have broken his neck," the doctor replied.

"Not to sound tacky, but since you brought him in, do you happen to know what his health insurance provider is?" Davis looked almost embarrassed to ask it, but he did have the hospital to think of.

"I'm not even sure who he works for Doc," Clark replied, glancing at Ding, who shook his head.

"We're actually working with his daughter, and only happened to be in a position to hear him fall down the stairs by accident."

Davis shook his head. Then thinking of something, "Would he be related the Buffy Summers, there aren't too many Summers in the town, and I remember her from when her mom got sick. We do need to contact his next of kin."

"They're estranged Doc, so they might not know much about what he's been up to either."

Davis shook his head, "Well, the paperwork will keep until he comes too. Have a good evening gentlemen."

1630 Revello Dr.  
Sunnydale CA  
8Nov2002  
21:42 hrs

"General Clark." Molly said as she opened up the door.

"Hello Molly, is Dawn in, I need to talk to her."

Molly nodded, and turning back into the house called, "Dawn! It's for you."

"Coming!" Came from upstairs.

Dawn jogged down the steps, and seeing John Clark in the doorway got a scared look on her face. "Has something happened to Buffy?" She asked in an excited voice.

John raised his hands to calm the teenager, and the half a dozen faces that came out of the living room at Dawn's outburst. "As far as I know, Buffy is fine, this is about something else."

Dawn nodded as she came toward Rainbow Six. Xander popped out of the kitchen and followed them out. Clark allowed it, because with both Buffy and Giles gone, Xander was in charge of the Summers' household.

"I ran into your dad tonight," Clark began.

I thought he left town a couple weeks ago," Dawn asked.

"He came back in today. He brought a lawyer with him. Buffy basically told him the truth when he was in to get those papers signed. He thought she had another breakdown and wanted you put somewhere safe."

"As if I'd go with him," Dawn said hotly.

"He wasn't trying for direct custody. He wanted you put somewhere safe while the courts decided on Buffy's fitness to be your guardian."

Dawn was not mollified, "So why aren't I in a foster home somewhere?"

"The Juvenile Officer recognized your name and called O'Connell, who called me. I got a hold of Jack and he talked to your dad," Clark explained.

"The President got involved in this?" Dawn asked, not quite believing it.

"Yeah, I couldn't believe that myself," Xander added.

Dawn jerked toward Xander, "You knew my dad was in town to yank me away from Buffy and you didn't mention anything?"

Xander took a step back, he didn't want to get hit, "It had been handled, I didn't think anything more was going to come of it."

Dawn whipped back around to Clark, "Have you told Buffy yet?"

Clark looked sheepish, "No. I thought that with her being stuck in San Francisco all she could do was worry, and she has enough on her plate. If he had actually managed to take custody I would have called her immediately."

"And shot Hank," Xander added.

Clark gave him a sour look.

"Okay, thanks for the heads up," Dawn said. "I'll hold off from calling Buffy."

"There's more Dawn. Your dad is in the hospital," Clark continued.

A flash of concern went over Dawn's eyes, but it quickly turned into disinterest, "This should interest me why?"

"Considering how he treated you and Buffy, it probably shouldn't" Clark said.

"But before he passed out, he mumbled that he had seen Joyce and that she had forced him down the steps. Given that this is Sunnydale, I'm prepared to accept that your mother's ghost came back to extract some revenge on her ex, but, it could also have been…"

"The First," Dawn finished for him.

Clark nodded, "And if it was, we need to know why it tried to kill your father. I could have Paul Bellows question him, but I think you might be able to get more out of him."

"You want to go now?" Dawn asked. She was in no mood to talk to her dad, but anything to get out of the cramped quarters of Casa del Summers would be welcome.

"He's still unconscious, but as soon as he's up, I'll come get you," Clark promised.

"I should probably go too," Xander said.

Clark nodded.

Route 46 Inn  
145 Rt. 46  
Sunnydale CA  
8Nov2002  
21:43

Mike Reynolds glanced up from his desk as the bell on the front door jangled. One of the guys that had stayed here a couple of months back came through the door. Getting up and coming to the counter he asked, "Can I help you?"

Riley looked the guy up and down, he was still mostly dressed as he had been the last time Riley had seen him, right down to the massive key chain that dangled off the right side of his belt. Colonel Stanley didn't like the guy, and now that he was in his presence Riley could tell what he was talking about. He didn't get a supernatural vibe off of him, but he, he defiantly wasn't someone who Riley was prepared to turn his back on. "I'd like a room for the night."

Mike checked the registry and said, "Sure, I can let you have one of the rooms you guys stayed in last time."

Riley nodded and handed over his credit card. This was the first night that he and Sam had off together in over a month. Xander and his construction crew had worked miracles. They had turned the one wing of headquarters into a BOQ (Bachelor Officer Quarters) that was the equal to just about any base he had been at. Each floor had ten rooms. Nine of them set up to allow a bed, dresser and closet for both people living there. The final room was set up for the Officer in Charge of the unit. It was set up as a single, with the extra space turned into an office for the Officer. While there was plenty of room in the room, the problem was that in getting the rooms done there hadn't been time to put anything but a drop ceiling, so noise between rooms was substantial. There was no way that Riley was going to do with Sam what he had planned where the rest of the team could hear everything.

Mike glanced out and saw the pretty red-head that was linked up with this guy holding the leash on a German Shepard. "We don't allow pets," he said blandly.

Riley frowned and pulling a fifty out of his wallet, he handed it to the motel manager and said, "How about you forgot you saw her. We'll be gone come morning."

Mike took the bill and said, "She does damage you'll have to pay for that too."

Riley shrugged, "She's housebroken and not given to chewing." He took the key and went out. He kissed his wife and the three of them headed up to the room.


End file.
